Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Ifueko.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jordan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m a Nigerian-American author of Young Adult fantasy, and I’ve wanted to be one for as long as I can remember. My debut novel, RAYBEARER, comes out August 18! Here’s a brief summary: In a global empire, a love-starved Black prodigy is coerced by her mother to join a divine crown prince’s council. Her mission? Earn his trust. Swear her love. And to her horror…kill him.
I wrote RAYBEARER partly because I didn’t see anything like it out there growing up. In a way, RAYBEARER was an attempt to make sense of my tangle of cultural influences.
I’m the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, who themselves were raised in Africa, Europe, and North America. I was born in California, yet grew up reading West African fairy tales, Korean picture books, and Charlotte Bronte. My environment was predominantly white, in which I often felt alien, but I also didn’t feel Black American enough or Nigerian enough to fit fully into those communities. Fantasy became my escape, a place where all the parts of me could simultaneously exist…but only if I wrote the stories myself.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As a young reader, I loved fantasy, but it’s a genre that never loved me back. I was drawn to stories of empowered girls finding their place, but any characters that resembled me–if present at all–were negatively stereotyped or underdeveloped supporting characters.
In the earliest iterations of RAYBEARER, which began in high school, I set out to write a fantasy as culturally intersectional as I was. But I was still trying to “fit in” with the fantasy that I read: the earliest versions of Aritsar didn’t center African culture at all. The empire was a vague conglomerate of multi-complexioned people with sort of Afro-Latiny names, and frankly…it was a hot mess.
Cultures, I learned, are specific, stubborn things, and if a reader is left to fill in a blank, they will fill it with European faces, clothing, and values. So I started afresh, and the new Aritsar, with its Yoruba-coded dynasty and culturally-specific landscape, was born. I wrote what I longed to read as a young teen: celebrations of the food, fabrics, and hair textures that had made me feel special. The value of specificity and cultural inclusion became a central theme of RAYBEARER. And then, well–I went a little crazy. Aritsar became an awesome block party in my head to which I could invite anyone I wanted, and that’s how we ended up with 13 ethnically different kingdoms on a Pangea-esque continent. It was loads of fun, and I don’t regret anything, but…phew.
I was also tired of narratives in which Black and African people were oppressed. These narratives are valuable, and they absolutely reflect the truth, but they also underrepresent the beauty, power, and hope with which Black cultures are filled. In Aritsar, the beauty of Blackness is never questioned, and the challenges they face stem from their power, not their marginalization.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’ve been extremely fortunate in my agent, editor, publicist, and publishing team. They were supportive and enthusiastic about my work from the get go, and not everyone gets that –especially other authors of color. I’ve known some who had to dire their entire team for neglectful practices.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @jordanifueko
- Twitter: @jifueko
Image Credit:
Micaela Alcino (RAYBEARER Cover)
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