Teaching Resources for Middle School Using The New York Times - The New York Times

Teaching Resources for Middle School Using The New York Times - The New York Times

Teaching Resources for Middle School Using The New York Times - The New York Times

Posted: 28 Aug 2020 05:23 AM PDT

Some teachers might think that The New York Times, with its sophisticated language and lengthy articles, is too adult or advanced a resource for many middle school students. But teachers who have used The Learning Network tell us that the array of activities we've created using Times content — including photos, illustrations, graphs and videos — gives students at different reading levels a chance to deepen their thinking and expand their knowledge of the world.

If you are a middle school teacher curious about how The Times can be used to develop writing skills, practice data literacy, promote student voice and, of course, help students learn about current events, below is a brief introduction to some of our most middle-school-friendly resources. And because we know that the "classroom" will look different for everyone this year, we've included a list of practical strategies for how to use each of these features in a variety of settings, whether that's in-person, virtual or a hybrid.

If you want to learn more about The Learning Network and everything we offer teachers and students, we suggest you read our "How to Use This Site" guide and subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.

Here's what you'll find below:

Each week we publish four new short, accessible, image-driven prompts that invite students to create short stories, poems and memoirs; share experiences from their lives; analyze illustrations, graphs and charts; and debate current issues.

Here are examples of the four types of writing we promote using our prompts:

If you want access to hundreds of prompts, here's our growing collection. And if you want a list of prompts categorized by writing type, here are 144 prompts from this past school year.

Want to learn more? Watch our on-demand webinar that walks you through how to use our Picture Prompts.

Credit...Kerem Yucel/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

For students able to tackle more text, we use an excerpt from a Times article or an Op-Ed as a jumping off point for each of our daily Student Opinion questions. These questions explore popular subjects — including family, school, friendships, race, gender and social media — as well as current events like the coronavirus pandemic or the Black Lives Matter protests. We generally write these questions with students ages 13 and older in mind, so please use your best judgment as to whether the topic and reading level are appropriate for your class.

Here are three questions that show the variety of topics we invite students to engage with:

We have published thousands of these prompts over the past decade. To find the latest, visit our collection. Or for lists of prompts organized by writing type, try these 130 prompts for argument writing or these 550 narrative writing prompts.

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Each week, we select an intriguing Times photograph from any point in the paper's 169-year history and strip it of its caption. We ask students to look closely, interpret what they see in the image, and explain what details support their analysis with these three questions:

  • What is going on in this picture?

  • What do you see that makes you say that?

  • What more can you find?

What's Going On in This Picture? works as a learning activity with students of all ages, from elementary school to adult learners. Teachers have shared how they use the activity to practice visual literacy skills; to ease students into writing paragraphs with claims and evidence; and to support English language learners.

Here are three additional images from our collection that might puzzle middle school students:

To help you get started using this feature, we have a webinar all about What's Going On in This Picture?

Each week, we host another related feature, What's Going On in This Graph?, that asks students to notice and wonder about a Times graph, chart or map. We partner with the American Statistical Association to select graphs and moderate an online weekly discussion. Every week we ask:

  • What do you notice?

  • What do you wonder?

  • What's going on in this graph? Write a catchy headline that captures the graph's main idea.

Here are three examples of graphs to engage middle school students:

To learn more about how to use this feature, here's a webinar.

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Credit...June Canedo for The New York Times

Every school day we choose an important or interesting Times article to feature in our Lesson of the Day and pair it with a warm-up, critical-thinking questions and a going-further activity. The activities and questions are intended to help students understand the article, contextualize it within current and historical world events, and connect the content to their own lives.

As you might expect, many of our Lessons of the Day respond to major news events, such as the 2020 election and the death of Kobe Bryant. However, many more are about events and issues small and large that we think will interest students and connect to the curriculum.

Here are examples that showcase three ways that teachers use our daily lessons:

And, as with our other features, we offer an on-demand webinar showing how to use this resource.

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Credit...Clockwise, from top left: Gary Mueller, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Warner Music; Stephen Crowley/The New York Times; Steve Gschmeissner/Science Source; Mark Bourdillon/Love Productions, via Channel 4; Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Tens of thousands of students from around the world participate in our contests each year, creating podcasts, writing editorials, telling stories, documenting their lives and responding to the news.

Teachers tell us they appreciate how these contests invite students to compose for an "authentic audience" and motivate them to produce their best work. Students tell us they like the variety of ways they can express themselves — and the confidence boost when their writing and art are recognized. For us, these contests offer more formal opportunities to do what we try to do every day: Show students that their voices and ideas matter.

For the 2020-21 school year, we invite middle school teachers and students to participate in the following contests:

  • Narrative Writing

  • Review

  • 15-Second Vocabulary Video

  • STEM Writing

  • Editorial

  • Podcast

Students who are ages 13 or older can participate in additional contests as well; see our 2020-21 contest calendar for more details.

To learn more about how to use this resource, here's a webinar.

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Whether you're teaching in person or online, synchronously or asynchronously, you can use these strategies to build our features into your classroom routines and support students of all levels.

What other ideas do you have for teaching with these activities in your class? Share them in the comments.

Our Writing Prompts, What's Going On in This Picture? and What's Going On in This Graph? activities make great discussion starters for students of all ages and levels. Here's how:

  • Build community. Get to know your students and help them get to know one another by using our writing prompts as icebreaker questions, like: What would your dream home look like? What have you learned about yourself during quarantine? What do the objects in your home say about you?

    Our What's Going On in This Picture? and What's Going On in This Graph? activities can also serve to build a positive classroom culture by fostering communication, collaboration and fun on a weekly basis.

  • Discuss and debate. Our writing prompts feature questions to inspire debate, too. Use these to practice accountable talk and civil conversations.

  • Chat in person or through video. During an in-person or live virtual session, you can post the prompt or image on a slide, then put students into (socially distanced) small groups or breakout rooms to discuss. Bring them back together and invite them to share what their partner or group said with the whole class.

  • Have conversations online. If you're teaching remotely, you can post a question or image on your learning management system or a virtual bulletin board, like Padlet, and invite students to respond and reply to one another there in writing. For more fun, try posting it on Flipgrid and asking students to answer via video.

Teachers have told us that our regular features can provide a structure to their week that gives students something to look forward to and creates predictability in a chaotic time. Here are a few ways to try this in your classroom:

  • Begin class with a writing prompt. Whether you're in-person or online you can use our prompts to build a daily writing habit or get students talking to one another.

  • Do What's Going On in This Picture? or What's Going On in This Graph? every week. You can lead a live session one day a week by projecting the image or graph on your screen and inviting students to discuss it verbally or using the chat if you are online. Watch this video of a fifth-grade teacher conducting the Visual Thinking Strategies protocol in her classroom.

    For asynchronous learning, post the image on your learning management system and invite students to comment all week. Be sure to check back for the reveal on Thursdays.

  • Start "Current Events Fridays" (or any other day of the week). Dig through our archive of Lessons of the Day to find high-interest, student-friendly articles to read and discuss. Or, invite a different student each week to present an article of their choice to the class. All of the Times articles on The Learning Network are free.

Though we try to choose the most student-friendly articles for these features, Times texts can be challenging for younger students and struggling readers. Here are some suggestions for scaffolding their use for your class:

  • Use images to activate schema. Use Picture Prompts, What's Going On in This Picture? or the art included in our Lesson of the Day as a warm-up to activate prior knowledge, vocabulary or connections before reading the related article. Invite students to discuss the given prompts or try some of these: What do you think is going on in this image? What do you think the article is about if this is the image that illustrates it? What people, places, ideas or words might you associate with this image? What personal connections can you make to what you see?

  • Try our warm-ups. Our Lessons of the Day and Student Opinion questions come with warm-ups that can help students build background knowledge and make connections to the content before reading. These usually involve discussion or reflection questions, watching a video, or viewing images and graphs. You might do them as a class or in small groups.

  • Do a read-aloud: After completing the warm-up for our Lesson of the Day or Student Opinion questions, instead of letting students read the article on their own, read it aloud to them, encouraging them to follow along. You can do this during a live class session or record a video of yourself reading and post it on your learning management system for students to watch as they work through a lesson.

  • Chunk the text. Our Lesson of the Day and Student Opinion questions come with comprehension and discussion questions. Instead of having students read the entire article, then answer the questions, you might have them read only a few paragraphs at a time, then respond to the corresponding question before moving on to the next few paragraphs.

Our Picture Prompts and What's Going On in This Picture? features are popular among students who are learning and developing English. They can use these images to practice vocabulary, brainstorm verbs and adjectives, or learn new words.

To further support English language learners, you might label the images with key words and encourage students to use them to build full sentences.

These make great writing or speaking and listening activities, depending on your students' goals.

Each of these activities provides plenty of opportunity for student voice and choice in the curriculum.

For example, some teachers invite students to scroll through our list of writing prompts each week and respond to one of their choosing. You might have them post their responses on your preferred learning management system or share what they learned with the class via a live presentation or virtual bulletin board, like Padlet. You can try this with any of our features.

And if your students are fairly independent writers, as a bonus assignment, you can challenge them to enter at least one Learning Network contest of their choice throughout the school year.

What's Going On in This Picture? and What's Going On in This Graph? can prepare students to make inferences and cite evidence in other subject areas.

You can even apply the prompts when breaking down a difficult text or concept. For example, in language arts class, when close reading a dense passage or a poem, you can invite students to lead their own inquiry by asking: What is going on in this text? What do you see, or read, that makes you say that? What more can you find?

Our Lessons of the Day also feature questions that encourage critical thinking and media literacy skills.

To guide students in the creation of their submissions for our contests, consider using our writing curriculum, which includes units to support the narrative, review, STEM, editorial and podcast challenges. Each unit has writing prompts, mentor texts and lesson plans that help students learn and practice the essential elements of each genre.

You can adapt this curriculum to build a writer's workshop or, if you're teaching remotely, a "blended writer's workshop," which combines both synchronous and asynchronous learning activities to guide students through the writing process. Here is an excellent model for how to do this from the educational blog Moving Writers.

One way you might try adapting this curriculum for online learning is by incorporating our writing prompts into a writer's notebook, or a digital writer's notebook (Moving Writers). The responses can serve as starting points or inspiration for students' contest submissions.

You can also use our Mentor Text series to teach specific skills that will elevate students' final pieces. Try this "flipped" version suggested by Moving Writers: Record mini lessons for students to watch and practice for homework. Then, use your live class sessions for further practice or to conference with students about their pieces. When students are at the revision stage, they can meet in small groups or breakout rooms to give feedback on one another's pieces.

If your students are 13 or older, they can comment directly on our site. Invite them to post their responses to writing prompts in the comments section and reply to other students from across the country and around the world. They will need to register for an account to be able to comment; this article explains how.

They can also join the live moderated conversations for What's Going On in This Picture? from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern on Mondays and What's Going On in This Graph? 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays. If your students are under 13, you can try the activity as a class first, summarize their conclusions, then post a comment on their behalf.

Many of these activities might just be starting points for deeper discussions, writing or research. Here are a few ideas for how to take them further:

  • Research. Use a Lesson of the Day as a jumping off point for research or a deeper dive into the subject. After reading the article, students can create a list of questions that they want to explore further.

  • Turn writing responses into full essays. Student responses to writing prompts can be fodder for longer narrative, argumentative, analytical or creative pieces — like those they might submit to our contests.

  • Tell a story. Many teachers have encouraged students to write a creative piece inspired by images from our Picture Prompts and What's Going On in This Picture? series. Here's a lesson plan that guides students through producing a short story with Times images.

  • Make connections. Invite students to make connections between a lesson, writing prompt, image or graph and their own lives, the world, a concept they're learning about or a text they're reading. In this lesson plan, a teacher tells us how he encourages students to make connections between Times images and their independent reading books.

Best new Irish and international books for autumn and beyond - Irish Examiner

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:00 AM PDT

Home Stretch, Graham Norton 

Bandon's favourite son Norton seems to write books as effortlessly as he handles the celebrity guests on his TV couch. In his third novel, set in a small Irish town and New York in the 1980s, a catastrophic accident on the eve of a wedding reverberates through the lives of those left behind. Norton brings his storytelling skills to bear as he builds to the inevitable reckoning. Out Sept 29.

A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann Ní Ghriofa 

This prose debut from Cork-based writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa is a beguiling blend of memoir, essay, history and poetry in which she probes a connection across the centuries with another writer and mother, Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, author of the famous 18th century lament Caoineadh Airt Ui Laoghaire. A raw and haunting read that lingers long in the mind.

Summerwater, Sarah Moss

Moss, an English writer recently transplanted to Ireland, hits the target in this presciently claustrophobic tale of holidaymakers watching and waiting as they are cooped up in their Scottish holiday cabins due to inclement weather. Moss builds the tension masterfullly, as readers wait for the axe to fall.

Jack, Marilynne Robinson

The Pulitzer Prize-winning American author returns with the final instalment of the Gilead quartet, which focuses on the Presbyterian minister's prodigal son Jack Boughton and his relationship with a black high-school teacher. Also a timely look at racial tensions in post-war America. Out Sept 29.

Inside Story, Martin Amis 

A new book from the former enfant terrible of fiction no longer has the literary world on tenterhooks but there is bound to be plenty to chew on in this autobiographical novel, inspired by his friendship with the late Christopher Hitchens among others. Out Sept 24.

The Sentinel, Lee Child and Andrew Child

This is the 25th Jack Reacher novel but it is more notable for being the first where Lee Child (nee Grant) shares writing duties with his brother Andrew. The siblings don't deviate far from the phenomenally successful template, as Reacher arrives in a small town which is in the throes of a cyber attack. Will he, once again, save the day? Out Oct 27.

The Glorious Guinness Girls, Emily Hourican

Inspired by real events, this novel delves into the nearest thing Ireland had to an aristocracy, the Guinness dynasty. It follows the lives of Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh, granddaughters of the first Earl of Iveagh, who become embroiled in scandals, love affairs and tragedies, as the action moves from the turmoil of the War of Independence to the glamour of London high society. Out Sept 17.

That Old Country Music, Kevin Barry

No-one delights in rooting around the nooks and crannies of the small-town Irish psyche quite like the inimitable Barry. His customary wit and ear for dialogue are present and correct in this much-anticipated collection of short stories, his first since Dark Lies the Island, eight years ago. Out Oct 22.

The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman 

The much-loved Pointless presenter (and, incidentally, brother of Suede bassist Mat) turns to crime in this accomplished debut novel which follows the adventures of four friends in a peaceful retirement village who meet up once a week to discuss cold cases, until they find themselves investigating one in the here and now.

Snow, John Banville 

Previously appearing under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, this is the first of Banville's detective novel to be published under his own name. Set in the 1950s, it has all the classic ingredients — a body in the library, a family with plenty of secrets and a detective from Dublin who must unravel it all. Out Oct 1.

Daddy, Emma Cline

Cline's debut novel The Girls, inspired by Charles Manson and the Family, made quite a splash and now she's back with a short story collection, each one centred on a father figure.

Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith 

JK Rowling returns in her crime-writing guise, with the fifth instalment of the popular Cormoran Strike detective series. This time around, the brooding private eye takes on a cold case in Cornwall.

The Fire of Joy: Roughly 80 Poems to Get by Heart and Say Aloud, Clive James

The much-missed Australian writer and critic brought joy to many in print and on screen, while in later life, his poetry came to the fore. This book, finished just before his death last year, features 80 poems with accompanying commentaries. These are poems he would recite when, in the last months of his life, his vision was impaired and he was unable to read. Out Oct 1.

Mordew, Alex Pheby

This beautifully produced book from the small but mighty Galley Beggar Press is an absorbing and inventive addition to the fantasy genre. The first in a planned trilogy, slum-dwelling protagonist Nathan navigates life under a terrifying overlord in the unremittingly bleak city of the title.

Betty, Tiffany McDaniel

A lyrical and at times heartbreaking tale of a young girl raised in the foothills of the Appalachians who finds a release from a cruel and impoverished upbringing in the healing power of nature and writing.

And five non-fiction books you shouldn't miss

More Than A Woman, Caitlin Moran 

In her follow-up to the hugely successful How to Be A Woman, Moran, is, as ever, relatable and funny on the challenges faced by women in midlife. However, she also delves deeper, writing movingly of the anguish her family faced as her daughter struggled with an eating disorder.

Dear Reader: The Comfort of Joy of Books, Cathy Rentzenbrink 

Rentzenbrink once again displays her gift for intimate and incisive memoir in this beautifully written and currently resonant ode to reading and stories, exploring how books can keep us afloat in times of tragedy and adversity. Out Sept 17.

The Gospel of the Eels, Patrik Svensson

Swedish writer Svensson has been garnering rave reviews for this magical mixture of memoir and nature writing, which tracks the slippery story of one of the world's most mysterious fish, while also examining his relationship with his father.

Beyond the Tape, Dr Marie Cassidy

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the appetite for true-crime stories, this memoir from Ireland's first female State pathologist was acquired after a six-way bidding war. It promises to be a fascinating read, detailing some of the well-known cases Dr Cassidy worked on, as well as her personal journey. Out Oct 2.

Ok, Let's Do Your Stupid Idea, Patrick Freyne

If anyone is going to be an Irish David Sedaris, Freyne perhaps has the best claim. The  Irish Times features writer makes it look effortless, but there's a knack to his particular brand of humour and observational commentary which he also brings to this collection of essays and musings on life in general. Out Sept 17.

Intelligencer now offering ‘Insider’ content for subscribers - The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Posted: 31 Aug 2020 05:00 AM PDT

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For more than 150 years the Intelligencer has been a source of hometown news in Edwardsville.

We strive to tell the stories that matter to our community, like today's story about an Edwardsville High School graduate who saw a void he could fill for local athletes like himself and built a sports simulation program. A story like this is an example of the quality journalism we have worked to provide our readers, especially over the past few months, and that won't change.

What will change is how we deliver some of our work – providing an enhanced digital experience for some of our best localized stories.

Beginning today, digital and print subscribers will have exclusive access as an "Insider."

As an Insider, readers will have full access to our e-Edition and all stories featured on the Intelligencer's website. Readers will receive our daily, afternoon newsletter via email, highlighting what we are working on and why. Readers will also get to know members of our newsroom, because the newsletter is curated by us right here in Edwardsville.

Think of it as a "behind-the-scenes look" served directly to your inbox.

We also have other exclusive perks planned for the near future, including an opportunity for you to have a voice in our news coverage, forums to interact directly with our newsroom staff, and more.

Expect more content and new series as an Insider. Our "I on Local" section – which uplifts community voices in innovative ways – will soon launch a new series called "What's Up Neighbor?" The section will also welcome more local columnists as part of our latest series called "Community Spotlight." We will also continue our popular, weekly sports series "Where Are They Now" in the Insider section.

Much of our content – such as municipal developments, breaking news, photo galleries, police news, etc. – will remain free for anyone to read.

A significant investment goes into employing a newsroom. We need readers to support our vital information resource.

The most immediate change you will notice will be on our website, www.theintelligencer.com. Our best journalism will be labeled "Insider," which indicates a subscription is needed for access.

This Q&A includes more information about today's announcement:

It takes time and manpower to deliver award-winning journalism that informs our community and keeps democracy working.

We need to pay staffers to make phone calls, dig through documents, sit in meetings, write stories, edit stories, manage websites and more.

We need your support to keep uncovering and telling stories that help our community confront its problems, challenges and opportunities.

We also want to hear from you: With your subscription, you'll gain exclusive access to the editors and reporters behind the news, as well as more opportunities than ever before to guide the stories we cover and let us know how we're doing.

Why are some stories free while some require a subscription? How do you decide?

There's no hard and fast rule as to what makes a story free or not. In general, our Insider stories — the ones you have to pay for — offer insight you won't find elsewhere. Did an opinion writer analyze a new law? That goes on the Insider. Did a reporter use sources to get an exclusive scoop or write a story no one else thought to write? That's an Insider piece, too.

In short, we decide on a case-by-case basis.

But we also believe you deserve to know what's happening in your town as it's happening — especially when it comes to public safety. That's why we're still devoting resources to breaking news and keeping it free for you.

What does an Insider digital subscription include?

First, you'll get access to all the best local content produced by our newsroom.

You'll also get a behind-the-scenes look into our newsroom and the biggest stories unfolding in our community each day. Subscribers get an exclusive afternoon newsletter, with access to our journalists, hand-curated sneak peeks, Insider-only content, breaking news, a letter from the editor and more.

More than that, you'll get the e-Edition, an electronic version of our print edition sent to your inbox each morning we publish. You'll have opportunities to share your voice, connect with our journalists and steer our coverage.

How much does it cost?

As an introductory offer, digital-only access is just $.95 for the first month and $9.95 each month after that.

Do I have to pay extra if I already subscribe to print?

No! All you have to do is activate your digital subscription. You'll automatically be signed up to get an electronic version of the paper in your email every morning, plus a curated email newsletter designed and built for subscribers.

Who do I contact if I have trouble signing up or accessing my account?

Customer support: melissa.pitts@edwpub.net or 618-659-5733

Why should I subscribe? You don't cover enough local news in my community?

If we aren't covering the right news in your community, being a subscriber gives you the chance to let us know and be a part of the conversation. We're bringing subscribers behind the scenes, detailing the news-gathering process and letting our readers help us decide what's important to cover.

Why should I subscribe? I can get the news for free from other places.

When you become an Insider, you get access to coverage that goes beyond what you'll find elsewhere. When news breaks, we use our extensive network of sources to give you the inside scoop. We don't just cover the press conference or meeting about the news of the day — we bring you an analysis of how it could impact you.

Importantly, your subscription also gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how we do what we do, and multiple chances to give feedback on what you think we could do better.

Finally, your subscription helps support local journalism and the people who tell the story of our town to the world.

Rebecca Roanhorse's Genre-bending New Novel - Publishers Weekly

Posted: 28 Aug 2020 04:20 PM PDT

It's a bright summer Friday, and Rebecca Roanhorse sits out on her balcony overlooking the Sun and Moon Mountains in Santa Fe, N.Mex. The majestic and ancient lands below have become a deep part of the worldbuilding in her latest book, Black Sun (Saga Press, Oct.), which kicks off her new Between the Earth and Sky trilogy. Drawn from the diverse and varied civilizations of the pre-Columbian Americas, her new secondary world fantasy celebrates cultures she was desperate to see on the page as a writer of Black and Native descent.

"Unfortunately, epic fantasy all seems to be set in mythical worlds inspired by Europe," Roanhorse says. "We've read that a million times." So she makes it her mission to create fantasy landscapes that draw from new and startling creative wells.

Getting publishing to open up to those broadened fantasy horizons hasn't been easy. "I came to the publishing industry very naively, not understanding anything about the business or what it was like to be a writer," she says.

A voracious bibliophile since she was a kid, Roanhorse grew up reading the science fiction and fantasy during what she calls a "challenging" childhood in Fort Worth, Tex., and the genre became her happy place. She started drawing acclaim for her writing at a young age, winning her first poetry contest in third grade. She transformed a seventh grade science project on the planets into an emo-tragic short story about an astronaut on a suicide mission into the sun. "I think I got a B+ on that, which was pretty disappointing because I thought it was A+ work. I don't think I was supposed to turn it into a fictional narrative," she says with a laugh. "But I've been writing ever since."

She spent her middle and high school years spinning more tales only for herself, while thinking about the fantasy books she was reading.

"It was all white boys on quests," she muses, recalling the epic fantasies she read during that time. "I'd dropped out of reading it because it stopped speaking to me. There were no people who looked like me, and nothing that I really related to," she says, adding that she felt "disconnected" from the worlds of these novels. But once she found urban fantasy, she saw a genre where, she felt, there might be space for Native characters.

She encountered many half-Native characters in popular urban fantasy series, but noticed how those characters were divorced from their heritages. "They didn't interact with the heroes and gods and monsters of Native cultures," she explains. She says she started thinking: "Wouldn't it be great if there was a story where a character was very Native? Very attached to her culture and surrounded by brown people, and in a world that I knew?"

She'd been practicing Indian law and living in the Navajo nation with her husband and daughter when she started thinking about writing more seriously. It was at this point that she began working on what would become her debut fantasy, the Locus-winning and Hugo-nominated novel Trail of Lightning (Saga Press), which was published in 2018, when Roanhorse was in her 40s.

"So I just decided to write it. I wrote it purely for myself and for the joy of writing, and to keep myself sane while being a lawyer," she says. "I didn't even know people like me could be writers. An editor asked me why I waited so long to start writing, and I said 'I didn't know that I could be a science fiction and fantasy writer.' I didn't come to see people like Octavia Butler and N.K. Jemisin until later, so I didn't see anyone writing this genre that looked like me. So I didn't even know it was an option."

It wasn't until she joined a National Novel Writing Month group that she found the courage to try to get published. A motley crew including a romance novelist, a science writer, and a self-help expert, the group adored her work and encouraged her to get it published, which Roanhorse says was a major motivator.

She entered #DVPit, a biannual Twitter pitching event for authors and illustrators who self-identify as members of historically marginalized groups, but none of the agents who requested her manuscript were a good match. That's when she started querying, eventually connecting with agent Sara Megibow. "She picked five clients out of the 30,000 queries she gets a year," Roanhorse says. "And she picked me."

Barreling through the concrete ceiling of the white-dominated publishing industry, Roanhorse's debut sold within a week, and it went on to win a Locus and received nominations for several science fiction awards.

In many ways, Roanhorse is carving a path for others while reshaping the canon with her trailblazing stories. In 2018, Roanhorse received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (formerly the John W. Campbell Award). Her short story "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™"—published in Apex magazine in 2017—won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story and the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. It also earned her several prestigious nominations for the Locus Award for Best Short Story, the 2018 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the 2018 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story.

Her most ambitious work yet, Black Sun is a lush tale about the intertwined fates of a man born to be the vessel of a god, a seafaring outcast, and a powerful priest. It's set against the backdrop of Tova, a holy city on the planet Meridian. An epic adventure filled with giant crows, assassins, mermaids, astronomer priests, god-made storms, matriarchal clans, and more, it draws from the beauty and complexity of the pre-colonization cultures of the Americas.

It infuriates Roanhorse that these ancient civilizations don't get acknowledged for their profound accomplishments."Pre-Columbian cultures, pre-conflict cultures were rich and complex and sophisticated, particularly in their astronomy, architecture, and culture," she says, as she gazes out at the desert. "There's a pervasive idea—even to this day—that they were primitive."

In this new trilogy, Roanhorse seeks to use fantasy landscapes to unearth the beauty of those cultures, from the maritime Mayan ports to the architecture of Machu Picchu to the mound builders of Cahokia. She wanted to put a world on the page that she wanted to see. While not limiting herself to historical or cultural accuracy as a creator of fantasy, she let her imagination unfurl this ancient world's possibilities of magic and adventure in order to take wonderful storytelling risks.

"I start with character and worldbuild out of necessity," she says with a laugh, detailing how her books often open with a sliver of violence, like a drop of blood in a glass of champagne, signaling to the reader the trouble yet to come.

"My stories came from a place of urgency and joy," she says. "Those two things combined made me feel like I've got to write what I want to write, what comes to me."

Knowing that she's one of the most successful Black and Native science fiction and fantasy writers comes with a lot of responsibility. Roanhorse worked with many sensitivity readers to ensure the series world of Between the Earth and Sky and its characters were depicted with respect and dignity. She aims to tell good stories that celebrate the cultures of her ancestors, build imaginative worlds that invite exploration, and create misfit characters that demand following.

"I've always been an outsider. I'm adopted, and Native identity is complicated and political, and I understand why," she says. "But I know I mean a lot to many young Native writers. The ones who want to write genre and have not had a model, or who have been discouraged or told outright they can't. And Black readers have always loved and supported me."

She reflects on the fan mail she's gotten from readers, then she laughs and smiles. "They keep showing up in my workshops and keep saying things like 'I would've been too scared to do this if I hadn't known you were writing it and teaching it.' "

For Roanhorse, that's all she needs to keep telling the tales.

Dhonielle Clayton is the bestselling author of the series 'The Belles,' the coauthor of the 'Tiny Pretty Things' series, and the owner of the book packager Cake Literary.

A version of this article appeared in the 08/31/2020 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Genre Bending
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