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Sista Scifi
Genre-bending Africanfuturist horror blending The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed body-hopping ghost story.
Tlotlo Tsamaase discusses her debut novel, Womb City , as part of our recurring event, Sistah Scifi Series.
Womb City (Erewhon Books, 2024) is a genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.
“From the first sentence, Womb City burns bright. When you think there isn’t anywhere else to go, Tsamaase pulls you ever higher, head-spinning heights brought into focus by wire-taut tension and gorgeous prose. Raw and unflinching, lyrical and bombastic, Tsamaase has written a masterful techno-thriller that eviscerates the genre while surpassing it.” —Cadwell Turnbull, award-winning author of No Gods, No Monsters
Womb City (Erewhon Books, 2024) is a genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.
“From the first sentence, Womb City burns bright. When you think there isn’t anywhere else to go, Tsamaase pulls you ever higher, head-spinning heights brought into focus by wire-taut tension and gorgeous prose. Raw and unflinching, lyrical and bombastic, Tsamaase has written a masterful techno-thriller that eviscerates the genre while surpassing it.” —Cadwell Turnbull, award-winning author of No Gods, No Monsters
Tlotlo Tsamaase Tlotlo Tsamaase (xe/xem/xer or she/her/hers) is a Motswana writer. Xer novella, The Silence of Wilting Skin , is a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and was the first Motswana nominee for the Rhysling Award. Tlotlo received support from the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and xer story “Behind Our Irises” jointly won the Nommo Award. Xer short fiction has appeared in multiple best-of anthologies, Africa Risen , New Suns 2 , Chiral Mad 5, and other venues. Womb City is Tlotlo’s debut novel.
The “Sistah Scifi Series” is proudly presented as a partnership between the San Francisco Public Library’s African American Center and Sistah Scifi. This groundbreaking series invites you to explore the boundless realms of Afrofuturism and Afrofantasy, celebrating the vibrant contributions of Black women authors to the ever-evolving landscape of speculative literature.
Sistah Scifi is the first Black owned bookstore focused on science fiction and fantasy in the United States.
About The Splinter from the Sky:
This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body. Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret. The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave. As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone. Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?
About The Splinter from the Sky:
This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body. Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret. The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave. As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone. Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?
About San Francisco Public Library African American Center:
The African American Center on the third floor of the Main Library welcomes students, researchers and anyone interested in learning more about the historical, political and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and beyond. In addition to housing a collection of circulating and reference materials that span a range of subject areas, the Center also partners with other library departments and community organizations to sponsor exhibits and programs that are free to the public.
The African American Center on the third floor of the Main Library welcomes students, researchers and anyone interested in learning more about the historical, political and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and beyond. In addition to housing a collection of circulating and reference materials that span a range of subject areas, the Center also partners with other library departments and community organizations to sponsor exhibits and programs that are free to the public.
