A Mastery of Magic: Three authors on fantasy

Event Date: Thursday 3rd December     Time:  Doors Open 6.30     Location: Afrori Books

Join us as we host three incredible fantasy writers, and we discuss how culture and magic entwine and the importance of creating Black fantasy worlds.

Marvellous Michael Anson, known as Marve, is an award-winning filmmaker and fantasy author. Her trade debut novel, Firstborn of the Sun, was published by Penguin Michael Joseph in October 2025 and is the first in a trilogy. A finalist for the 2023 Future Worlds Prize and the 2026 NOMMO Award for Best Novel, the series has received recognition in several other writing competitions. Its sequel, Heir of the Shadow, is due for release in November 2026.

M. H. Ayinde was born in London’s East End. She is a runner, a lapsed martial artist, and a screen time enthusiast. She is the Sunday Times bestselling author of epic fantasy novel A SONG OF LEGENDS LOST (Orbit UK/Saga Press) and is an Ignyte, Locus, and British Fantasy Award finalist. Her short fiction has appeared in FIYAH Literary Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and elsewhere, and she was the 2021 winner of the Future Worlds Prize. She lives in London with three generations of her family and their Studio Ghibli obsession.

Rogba Payne was raised across both London and Lagos, Nigeria and is a descendant of John Augustus Otunba-Payne; the lawyer, writer and murdered prince of the Ijebu-Ode royal family. His adolescence was spent across seven different schools in both Nigeria and England, where he spent much of his time people-watching, dreaming up stories and silently correcting people’s grammar. If you catch him at his very best, he is writing speculative fiction that examines power, inequality and spirituality. His debut, The Dance of Shadows won the inaugural Aldiss Award for Worldbuilding in Speculative Fiction.