K. Ibura

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K. Ibura is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. The middle child of five, she grew up in a hardscrabble neighborhood with oak and fig trees, locusts and mosquitoes, cousins and neighbors. K. Ibura's work delves into spheres of human liberation, human connection, and evolution. She employs speculative fiction and creative nonfiction to take readers through mind-bending journeys into the transcendent, the mystical, and the fantastic.

All Writings

FictionSpeculative Fiction

Hemmie’s Calenture

“Come here.” Those two rustling words reverberated through Hemmie’s her dream, halting the cane leaves whipping in the wind over her and Nenah’s heads. She opened her eyes, shot up to sitting, and looked around the room. It was dark and empty. She fell back onto the mattress, threw a pillow over her face, and… »

FictionExcerpt Speculative Fiction

Because of the Boneman

The rocks loved the touch of air on their sharp points. With the season of wet winds past and the mugginess swept away, the air was full of a delicious coolness that the rocks loved to bathe in. But a man—long and gangly—had draped himself over them, pressing his limbs into their gaps. They hated… »

FictionSpeculative Fiction

Volcano Woman

He creeps up on me, quiet-like. A funky whisky scent invades me. “Hey, cutie.” He stands close. His scabs and scars make my skin crawl. When I take a step back, he scowls. “Why you actin scared, I jus wan talk to you. Maybe take you to a hotel.” One jittery look around shows me… »

Review

Black Speculative Fiction: Imagining Otherwise for Racial Justice

K. Ibura’s Ancient, Ancient, provide multiple routes through Black history, memory, myth, and sensuality.

Review

50 Brilliant Speculative Works by Black Authors

If you want vibrant, sensual, gut-punching, and wildly imaginative speculative stories centered on Black identity, gender, love, body, and becoming—you can do no better than Salaam’s collection here. Take your time with these—they’re stories to ponder and savor.

InterviewMedia Video

Speculative Fiction and the Current Moment

Ian Fraser and Hailey Kaas interviews K. Ibura at the Relampeio Festival. Introduction in Portuguese, interview in English

Review

Booklist: 9 Examples of Great Modern Short Story Collections

Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others (2002) K. Ibura, Ancient, Ancient: Short Fiction (2012) Saladin Ahmed, Engraved on the Eye (2012) Charles Yu, Sorry Please Thank You (2012) Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer, The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories(2011) Karen Russell, Vampires in the Lemon Grove (2013) Terry Pratchett, A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction (2015) Samantha Hunt, The Dark Dark (2017) Caitlin… »

Review

6 Books with Sabrina Vourvoulias

K. Ibura is one of the finest stylists in speculative fiction and her book of stories, When the World Wounds, is quite spectacular. I’m really haunted by two of the stories in the book, “Because of the Bone Man” and “Hemmie’s Calenture,” and think I might need to reread them as a master class in… »

Review

An American Gods Reading List: 9 Stories of Deities & Men Mingling in the World

Not all of the stories in K. Ibura’s recent collection of short fiction examine the paths of deities and humans converging, but two of the longest do–and juxtapose those meetings with wrenching moments in history. In “Hemmie’s Calenture,” a woman escaping slavery during the War of 1812 is pulled into the conflict between two ageless… »

Review

L.A. Review of Books—What Art Does: When the World Wounds

When The World Wounds engages central SF&F questions with power and grace: In this vast universe, how can we (human, alien, animal, tree, insect, rock, microbe, water) survive each other? How can we heal from the trauma of our differences? How can we be different together? For Salaam, our imaginations, our rituals and festivals, our… »