During the 2025-2026 Great World Texts in Wisconsin program, high school teachers and students throughout the state will read Nnedi Orkorafor’s latest novel, Death of the Author, a masterpiece of metafiction that is surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable. Death of the Author is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it.
Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister’s lavish Caribbean wedding, she’s unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It’s a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.
When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey—one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu’s novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.
About the Author
Critically acclaimed sci-fi and fantasy writer Nnedi Okorafor is a professor of practice with the Interplanetary Initiative in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.
Okorafor is the author of award-winning Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism, including dozens of novels, novellas and comics for children and adults. Her dual Nigerian and American heritage is the foundation and inspiration for much of her work. Some of her most well-known works include “Who Fears Death,” “LaGuardia,” “Remote Control” and “Wakanda Forever.” Her novella trilogy “Binti” is currently in development with Hulu as a TV series, in addition to film projects, books and a graphic novel.
Okorafor’s work has garnered myriad prestigious awards including a World Fantasy Award, Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, Locus Award, an Eisner Award and a Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.
Okorafor received her doctorate in English from the University of Illinois in 2007, a master’s degree in English from the University of Illinois in 2002, a master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University in 1999 and a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from the University of Illinois in 1996.
Teaching Guide and Resources
Teachers participating in Great World Texts will receive a curricular guide for Death of the Author and a classroom set of texts for their school’s permanent collection. The curriculum guide contains contextual and lecture materials, suggested readings, close reading and discussion activities, handouts, and suggestions for student projects. This curricular guide is designed to make the text accessible for a range of learners and grade levels and is customizable to meet the needs of a wide range of classrooms and students.
Participating teachers from across the state of Wisconsin also attend a virtual educator colloquium, to be held in August 2025, which will feature lectures by campus faculty, guidelines for the conference, and community building exercises between educators.
Educators will bring their students to UW-Madison for a full-day conference on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, where students will present projects created in response to the novel, engage with other students from across the state, and meet author Nnedi Okorafor in person. All participating educators received a stipend to fund their school’s participation in Great World Texts. These funds are most often used to offset the costs of substitute teachers and bus travel to Madison for the student conference.
Digital access to our free Educator Curriculum Guide will be available in August 2025.
Please join us for the following special event related to Great World Texts. This event is free and open to all.
Humanities Without Boundaries: Nnedi Okorafor
Tuesday, April 7, 2026, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM
Madison Central Public Library, 201 W. Mifflin Street
Moderated by Vilas Early Career and Constellations Mellon-Morgridge Professor, Ainehi Edoro, English Department, UW-Madison. Presented in partnership with Wisconsin Book Festival. In this engaging Humanities Without Boundaries conversation, author Nnedi Okorafor will talk about her recent and upcoming works as well as her writing process. Following the conversation, books will be sold on-site by A Room of One’s Own and are available for signing.
Support for Death of the Author in Wisconsin
Nnedi Okorafor’s visit to UW-Madison and Death of the Author in Wisconsin are supported by the UW-Madison Libraries; the Cleary-Kumm Foundation; the Evjue Foundation; the Wisconsin Book Festival; the Anonymous Fund of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and the Brittingham Wisconsin Trust.