Arkady Martine

Arkady Martine is the pen name of AnnaLinden Weller, an American science fiction author, historian of the Byzantine Empire, and city planner whose debut novel won science fiction's highest honour. She holds a PhD in Byzantine history and has worked as a climate adaptation policy analyst and urban planner. Her debut novel A Memory Called Empire won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2020, and its sequel A Desolation Called Peace won the same award in 2022 — making Martine one of the few authors to win consecutive Hugos for the same series. The Teixcalaan duology is set in a vast, poetry-obsessed galactic empire and follows Mahit Dzmare, an ambassador from a small space station who must navigate political intrigue after her predecessor's mysterious death. The series explores colonialism, cultural assimilation, language, and identity through the lens of epic space opera. Martine's academic expertise in empire and her love of poetry infuse every page of her fiction with unusual depth and richness. Her audiobooks and books offer listeners and readers intelligent, gorgeously written science fiction that uses far-future settings to ask urgent questions about power, identity, and what it means to be consumed by something you love.