We are honored to feature cover artist Stephen Embleton, illustrator of the stunning cover art for The Nga’Phandileh Whisperer: A Sauútiverse Novella, by Eugen Bacon. We recently posted about the cover reveal for Eugen’s book, and today we’re introducing the artist behind that glorious imagery.
About Stephen Embleton
Stephen Embleton is an artist and Nommo Award recipient writer born in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and he is a resident in Oxford, after his 2022 academic fellowship at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford. He is a member of the African speculative fiction writer and artist group known as the Sauúti Collective. Eugen Bacon is also a member of the Collective, and her novella takes place within the Sauútiverse on one of fictional five planets in a binary star system. (Read more about The Nga’phandileh Whisperer.)
We greatly admired Stephen’s illustrations, including the cover art for Nerine Dorman’s The Company of Birds and Xan van Rooyen’s Waypoint Seven. So we were thrilled that he was available to illustrate Eugen’s cover.
Art Direction and Process
Eugen wanted a framed look for her cover, similar to the style of our anthologies Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers and Of Enchantment, Enigma, and the Infinite (in which she has short stories as well!). With additional notes for characters and settings in The Nga’phandileh Whisperer, Stephen began work. After Stephen, Eugen, and editor-in-chief Jendia Gammon communicated over cover notes, the cover evolved beautifully. Final text and framing was provided by Dash Creative, LLC, but all the illustration and background choices for the cover are by Stephen. We wanted to ensure that Stephen’s fabulous art was not obscured by any text.
Stephen goes into great detail for the cover art process in a post on his website that you can read HERE. We highly recommend reading this in-depth post!
The Final Cover
This is the final, glorious cover for The Nga’phandileh Whisperer. The attention to detail and the fine artistry, the colors, and the meaningful crafting are all exquisite. Thank you, Stephen, for your beautiful art.
We are proud to have Stephen’s stellar art to frame the wonderful words of Eugen Bacon within her novella, The Nga’phandileh Whisperer, which is now available for preorder. This was a perfect collaboration between two members of the Sauúti Collective, as they expand genre in new ways for stories to inspire for all time.
If you’d like to learn more about Stephen Embleton, visit his website and follow him on social media via Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, Mastodon, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X.