Kacen Callender

Kacen Callender (formerly Lex Callender, formerly Kheryn Callender) is a Caribbean-American author of fantasy and young adult fiction. They won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Queen of the Conquered (2020), set on a fictional Caribbean island during a brutal colonial occupation. The novel was praised for its unflinching examination of slavery, colonialism, and complicity. Callender was born in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. They are non-binary and use they/them pronouns. Queen of the Conquered and its sequel King of the Rising deal explicitly with slavery and liberation in a magical Caribbean setting. They have also written the Lambda Award-winning young adult novels Felix Ever After and This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story. Callender is an important voice in LGBTQ+ and Afro-Caribbean representation in speculative fiction.