Press Kit

You may refer to me by my full name, K. Tempest Bradford, or use Tempest for my first name (not K.). I use both Ms. and Mx. honorifics. I identify as a Queer or Asexual, Black or African American. I’m a cisgender woman, my pronouns are she/her.

I’m currently represented by Larissa Melo Pienkowski at Jill Grinberg Literary Management.

Official Images

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Author Bios

Please include a link to my website with all bios in print or online: https://ktempestbradford.com/

Social Media Profiles

Micro Bio: 60 words

K. Tempest Bradford is an award-winning teacher and media critic who writes speculative fiction steeped in Black Girl Magic. She’s the author of Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion, her debut novel, and over a dozen short stories. Her essays have appeared on NPR, io9, and more. Tempest gives talks and teaches classes on representation and diversity though Writing the Other.com.

Medium Bio: 150 words

K. Tempest Bradford is an award-winning teacher, media critic, and author of fantasy and science fiction steeped in Black Girl Magic. Her debut middle grade novel, Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion, was nominated for the 2022 Andre Norton Nebula Award. The book features a young Black genius who loves science and bugs.

Tempest’s short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies and magazines, including In The Shadow of the Towers and Strange Horizons. Her media criticism and essays on diversity and representation have been published at NPR, io9, Ebony Magazine, and more.

She teaches classes and gives talks on representation and creating diverse narratives for Writing the Other and has been invited to teach at Clarion West, LitReactor, universities, and entertainment companies.

She’s the recipient of the 2020 LOCUS Special Award for Inclusivity and Representation Education and the 2022 Lemonade Award. She’s been nominated for FIYAH Magazine‘s IGNYTE Community and Ember Awards.

Long Bio: 525 words

K. Tempest Bradford is an award-winning author, teacher, media critic, podcaster, and community organizer who writes fantasy and science fiction steeped in Black Girl Magic. Her debut middle grade novel, Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion, was nominated for the 2022 Andre Norton Nebula Award. The book features a young Black genius who loves science and bugs.

Tempest’s short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and magazines, including Black Sci-Fi Short Stories, In the Shadow of the Towers, Sunspot Jungle, Diverse Energies, Federations, Strange Horizons, Electric Velocipede, EscapePod, and PodCastle, plus many more. Her debut middle grade novel is about Ruby—a young, Black genius who loves entomology—and her encounter with the weirdest bug she’s ever seen and the mysterious men in black suits who come looking for it.

Tempest organizes and teaches classes and seminars on writing inclusive, diverse fiction for Writing the Other.com. She’s also given talks, seminars, and workshops on these and other creative writing topics for Clarion West, Sarah Lawrence College, LitReactor, Sisters in Crime, the Sirens Conference, Willamette Writers Conference, the Writing Excuses Conference and Retreat, several local RWA chapters, and other writing groups, conferences, colleges, and entertainment companies.

In 2020 Tempest, alongside Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, won the LOCUS Magazine Special Award for Inclusivity and Representation Education for their work with Writing the Other. Tempest, Nisi, and Writing the Other were also nominated in 2020 and 2021 for the IGNYTE Community Award.

Tempest enjoys commenting on media as much as consuming it and won’t hesitate to harsh your squee about that TV show, movie, book, or other piece of entertainment that doesn’t live up to high standards. Her articles, media criticism, and reviews can be found on NPR, LitReactor, the SFWA blog, io9, and various other media outlets. Her essays have appeared in collections (Chicks Dig Time Lords, Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler, and more) and college textbooks (Call And Response: Key Debates in African American Studies, and Current Issues and Enduring Questions 12th ed.).

When not writing or teaching, she hosts and contributes to multiple podcasts, including ORIGINality, Writing Excuses, the JEMcast, and The Write Gear.

She’s active in the SFF community and volunteers for a number of non-profit organizations. In the past she’s served as a juror for the James Tiptree Jr. (now Otherwise) Award, served as Programming co-chair for the WisCon feminist science fiction convention, organized fundraising auctions and salons for the Interstitial Arts Foundation, and raised funds for Clarion West, her writing workshop alma mater. Currently, she serves on the board of the Carl Brandon Society, an organization dedicated to increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction.

Tempest has often been been recognized for her activism and community engagement. Most recently in 2021 with a nomination for the IGNYTE Ember Award for unsung contributions to the genre and then in 2022 with the Lemonade Award for acts of kindness which further science fiction community.

You can connect with Tempest and find her fiction, classes, and news updates on KTempestBradford.com or on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. She occasionally shares bits of in-progress fiction and microstories via her den of patronage: The Tempestuous Salon.