Jenna Hanchey
Scholar | Writer | Artist
imagining and constellating better futures
Photo copyright Joseph Hanchey
I’m continually searching for liberatory futures, reflecting over the racial and colonial legacies of our pasts, and laboring to enact justice in the present. My essays engage decolonial possibility in, through, and beyond the collapse of “realities” that developmental logics take for granted. My creative work explores these possibilities further, plumbing the depths of grief, centering intimacies, and engendering hope.
A land-based mermaid listening to what the birds carry on the wind, I’ve wandered from the white sands of the Gulf to the shores of Lake Michigan to the hidden waters of the desert, where I work as Associate Professor of Rhetoric & Critical/Cultural Studies at Arizona State University. I’m an award-winning researcher and British Science Fiction Association Award-finalist author and audio narrator. Currently, I’m writing about deepening relationships with land in ways that un-settle colonial futurities, and exploring opportunities to create/join lay-education structures for critical humanities and writing courses.
Research & Public Essays
The Center Cannot Hold
My first book, The Center Cannot Hold: Decolonial Possibility in the Collapse of a Tanzanian NGO, is the winner of the 2024 Outstanding Monograph Award from the Organizational Communication division of the National Communication Association. It examines how decolonial possibility emerges from the collapse of normative aid operations and subjectivities. Listen to an interview about the book, download the introduction, or read a forum of reviews in Quarterly Journal of Speech.
Decolonial Dreamwork
My second book, Decolonial Dreamwork: Africanfuturism and Imagination Beyond Development examines how African speculative fiction imagines continental futures that challenge, reinvent, and eschew Western logics of development, and encourages everyone to imagine in solidarity with African creators. The book is forthcoming from The Ohio State University Press in their New Suns series. Find a sneak peek here in ASAP Journal: “Liquid Resistance.”
Reviews & Essays
I review for LA Review of Books and Ancillary Review of Books, and have published essays in Strange Horizons. For a recent review, see “Sitting With the Grief” a review of Eugen Bacon’s edited collection Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction, or “Realizing Better Futures Now,” a review of Joseph M. Pierce’s Speculative Relations.
Fiction & Poetry
Five Medicines You Found in the Garden of Unfinished Poems
Strange Horizons, March 20266
AITA for Killing All the Humans?
Asimov’s Science Fiction, March/April 2026
As well as stories & poetry forthcoming in Cast of Wonders, Strange Horizons and more…
Podcast & Audio Narration
Audiobook & Story Narration
I narrate for podcasts such as Simultaneous Times and Strange Horizons. One of my narrations was shortlisted for the 2026 BSFA Award for Best Audio Fiction — Tara Campbell’s “Just Let Me Help”! Listen to other stories, or hear me read from my own fiction at events like Story Hour and Space Cowboy Books’ Flash Science Fiction Night.
Podcasting
I’m cocreator and cohost of the limited series podcast Griots & Galaxies, which celebrates African speculative fiction. Chinelo Onwualu, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, and I interview African authors from across the world. Check out the first episode here, or wherever you find your podcasts.
I’ve also part of the amazing cohost team at Just Keep Writing! Learn about my work in “Spotlight on Jenna Hanchey,” find out about my writing inspirations in “Canon Events: Creative Research with Jenna” or explore the podcast to find more conversations.
Teaching & Workshops
Public Workshops and Consulting
I’ve organized, facilitated, and participated in a variety of workshops and panels for both public audiences and industry trainings. I’m available to speak on persuasive storytelling, decolonial praxis, critical media analysis, creative writing, futurisms and imagination, and speculative fiction. Find a number past events, see what’s upcoming, or reach out if you’d like to book me for an event.
Courses
I’ve designed and taught courses focused on rhetorical methods of analysis, decolonial rhetoric, pop culture studies, futurisms and futurities, and writing speculative fiction for social justice.
Artwork
My artwork is multimedia and transdisciplinary, published in outlets from zines to academic journals to speculative fiction magazines. I engage with collage, watercolor, acrylics, and photography to explore grief, imagine possibilities, center intimacies, and engender hope.
For Further Information
See my academic profile at ASU.
All of the photography on this website is my own (unless otherwise noted), copyright Jenna Hanchey, all rights reserved.
Jenna Hanchey 
