Singer-songwriter and actor Janelle Monáe will make her literary debut next year with a cyberpunk story collection, Publishers Weekly reports.
Harper Voyager will publish The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories From Dirty Computer, based on Monáe’s critically acclaimed concept album Dirty Computer.
The publisher says the book “explores how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms.”
Dirty Computer was one of the best-reviewed albums of 2018, earning a Grammy nomination for best album of the year. A short film based on the album got a Hugo nomination in the short form dramatic presentation category.
Monáe, a lifelong science fiction fan, said it was a “dream” to write a book based on her album, The Bookseller reports.
“Writers, specifically Black, queer, and genderqueer, are at the forefront of pushing the creative boundaries of sci-fi and speculative storytelling,” she said. “I’m honored to be collaborating with a new generation of creators as we expand this tale, that began with an album and emotion picture, into a larger world of new and familiar characters.”
The Memory Librarian is slated for publication on April 19, 2022.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
