Tade Thompson

Tade Thompson Listen^ⓘ FRSL is a British psychiatrist and writer of Yoruba descent. He is best known for his 2016 science fiction novel Rosewater, which won a Nommo Award and an Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Life and career

Thompson was born in London, England, to Yoruba parents. His family left the United Kingdom for Nigeria in 1976, when Thompson was seven. He grew up in Nigeria, where he studied medicine and social anthropology. He went on to specialise in psychiatry. He returned to the UK in 1998, where he has remained, except for a year spent working in Samoa.

As well as being an author, Thompson also works full-time at St James' Hospital, Portsmouth, where he specializes in mental illnesses in people with physical problems. In July 2020, he told The Guardian that he could not imagine leaving medicine, saying: “The hospital work is a calling. I help people.”

Thompson is also an illustrator and artist.

Reception and awards

Thompson's novels and short stories have been critically well received, with critics commenting on their originality and breadth of vision. Thompson was a John W. Campbell Award finalist and has been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award, the BSFA Award, and the Nommo Award. His novel Rosewater won the 2019 Arthur C. Clarke Award, making Thompson the second writer of black African heritage to win the prize.

In 2023, Thompson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Other work

• Omenana Magazine #4 (September 2015) (cover art)
• In Morningstar's Shadow: Dominion of the Fallen Stories by Aliette de Bodard (2015) (cover art)