Award-winning novelist and journalist Minister Faust is best known for his cult-classic novel The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, which was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award and Locus Best First Novel Award, and Shrinking the Heroes, which won the Kindred Award was the runner-up for the Philip K. Dick Award. Currently, Minister Faust is writing a series of interlocking eco-optimistic short stories for an eventual novel called Great Green Sahara.
His short fiction and journalism have been published in a wide range of magazines and anthologies, and he offers online master classes in fiction-writing called Write Like a MF.
In addition to having been a radio host-producer, television host and associate producer, sketch comedy writer, video game writer, playwright, and poet, Minister Faust is a keynote speaker and workshop developer who's spoken and taught across North America.
According to The Routledge Companion to Literature and Science, “Since 1960s, Afrodiasporic authors including Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, and Minister Faust have become luminaries within the SF community.”
The critically-acclaimed author of The Alchemists of Kush and the Kindred Award-winning and Philip K. Dick runner-up Shrinking the Heroes, Minister Faust first won accolades for his debut The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, shortlisted for the Locus Best First Novel and Philip K. Dick awards. Currently, he’s writing a series of interlocking eco-optimistic short stories for an eventual novel called Great Green Sahara.
Minister Faust’s short stories have appeared in Cyber World, Edmonton on Location, Fiery Spirits, Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology, Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, and elsewhere. iO9, Adventure Rocketship, Canada 150: Stories of Reconciliation Connecting Us All, Engineer Magazine, The Globe & Mail, Greg Tate’s Coon Bidness, and more have published his articles.
In addition to having been a radio host-producer, television host and associate producer, sketch comedy writer, video game writer, playwright, and poet, Minister Faust is a keynote speaker and workshop developer who's spoken and taught across North America. His Afritopianism draws from myriad ancient African civilisations, explores present realities, and imagines a future in which people struggle not only for justice, but for the stars.
NOVELS
The critically-acclaimed author of The Alchemists of Kush and the Kindred Award-winning and Philip K. Dick runner-up Shrinking the Heroes, Minister Faust first achieved literary accolades for his debut novel, The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, which was shortlisted for the Locus Best First Novel, Philip K. Dick, and Compton-Crook awards.
The New York Times Review of Books praised The Coyote Kings for its “jumpy, hold-nothing-back style,” saying that the author “anatomises [Edmonton] with the same loving care Joyce brought to early-20th-century Dublin…. fresh and stylish entertainment.” The National Post called it the “most exciting Canadian debut in decades,” and director Ernest Dickerson (Juice, The Walking Dead, The Wire) said, “Minister Faust is Samuel Delaney, Harlan Ellison and Ishmael Reed all rolled into one. His writing is biting, insightful and hugely entertaining.” Robert J. Sawyer says, “Minister Faust is a genius.”
VIDEO GAMES
Minister Faust contributed to BioWare’s Mass Effect 2, co-wrote the Kasumi DLC for Mass Effect 2, and wrote BioWare’s Gift of the Yeti and Maxis’s DarkSpore.
STAGE WRITING AND SKETCH COMEDY
Stage Writing and Sketch Comedy He wrote the children’s play The Wonderful World of Wangari about the Kenyan scientist, feminist, pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai for the Edmonton Sprouts Festival, wrote and performed sketch comedy for Edmonton’s 11:02 Show and Gordon’s Big Bald Head, and wrote and directed the science fiction play The Undiscovered Country for Montreal’s Creations, Etc. when he was 17.
PRINT JOURNALISM AND SHORT WRITING
Minister Faust’s articles have appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and websites, including on iO9 and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), and in Alberta Views, Adventure Rocketship: Let’s All Go to the Science Fiction Disco, the ACSW Advocate, Asimov's, Greg Tate’s Coon Bidness, the Del Rey Internet Newsletter, Food for Thought, The Globe & Mail, New Atlas, New Trail, SEE Magazine, Refractor, Solarpunk, University of Alberta Engineer Magazine, Unlimited, Vue Weekly, WestWord, and Your Health.
His short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Africanfuturism Short Stories (autumn 2026), Afrofuturism Short Stories: Anthology of New & Classic Tales, Asimov's (coming in 2026), Canada 150: Stories of Reconciliation Connecting Us All, Cyber World, Edmonton on Location: River City Chronicles, Fiery Spirits and Voices, Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology, High Level Lit Anthology, The Martin Trilogy, Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, and Poetry Nation. He wrote the introduction to the MITPress re-release of Pauline Hopkins' foundational Afritopian novel Of One Blood.
PODCASTING, RADIO, AND TELEVISION
For several years, Minister Faust hosted MF GALAXY, a podcast for writers about the craft and business of writing and story creation in every field from novels, stageplays, and screenplays, to lyrics, graphic novels, video games, poetry, journalism, and improvisational comedy.
Guests of MF GALAXY included Tobias Buckell, Jennifer Brissett, Bill Campbell, Chuck D., Colleen Brown, Marty Chan, Tananarive Due, Milton Davis, Ernest Dickerson, Anthony Q. Farrell, Cheryl Foggo, Tom Fontana, Andrea Hairston, Nalo Hopkinson, Tasha Hubbard, Reginald Hudlin, Ice-T, N.K. Jemisin, John Jennings, Joy Lusco Kecken, Mur Lafferty, A. Lee Martinez, Hugh Masekela, Nnedi Okorafor, Eden Robinson, Robert J. Sawyer, Gil Scott Heron, Titilope Sonuga, J. Michael Straczynski, Vern Thiessen, Thomas Wharton, Kenneth T. Williams, Gene Luen Yang, and many more.
A former national television host and associate producer, Minister Faust also hosted and produced Canada’s then-longest-running global African news and public affairs programme, Africentric Radio (originally The Terrordome) between 1991 and 2012, for which he interviewed luminaries such as Tariq Ali, Molefi Kete Asante, Martin Bernal, Chuck D., Austin Clarke, Angela Davis, Karl Evanzz, Tom Fontana, Glen Ford, Nalo Hopkinson, Reginald Hudlin, Ice-T, Janine Jackson, Michael Parenti, Ishmael Reed, Gil Scott-Heron, Vandana Shiva, David Simon, Scott Taylor, and many more.
As a radio and print journalist, he has gone as far as the 1995 Million Man March in Washington, DC, and to the Ain-al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, to collect stories and hear directly from people living and making history. In 2007-8, he hosted and associate produced HelpTV, Canada’s highest-rated live national daily programme produced outside Toronto, and for two seasons was a celebrity judge on Book TV’s 3 Day Novel Contest. He also freelanced for CBC’s OutFront and DNTO.
TEACHING
At TEDx Edmonton, Minister Faust presented “The Cure for Death by Smalltalk” on the importance of questions and stories in genuine conversation, which has been viewed online more than 800,000 times. He has also has presented at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Los Angeles, at California State University at Los Angeles, Diaspora Dialogues in Winnipeg, the Science Fiction Research Association Conference in Detroit, African History Month celebrations in Durham, Ontario, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and at many other events and locations.
In addition to having been the Writer in Residence for the University of Alberta, Minister Faust has taught creative writing at the Wayward Wormhole in New Mexico, Cat Rambo's online Academy for Wayward Writers, Shared Worlds in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the prestigious Clarion West (the leading science fiction and fantasy residential writing workshop in the world), and with YouthWrite in Edmonton and at Bragg Creek, among many other venues.
In Edmonton, Minister Faust taught high school and junior high school English for a decade, and worked as mentor and trainer for the Keshotu Leadership Academy, an Africentric organisation whose manual he also wrote. He earned his English and Education degrees with distinction in the previous millennium at the University of Alberta with a focus on creative writing.
SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND AFRITOPIANISM
According to The Routledge Companion to Literature and Science, “Since 1960s, Afrodiasporic authors including Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, and Minister Faust have become luminaries within the SF community.” Minister Faust's Afritopianism draws from myriad ancient African civilisations, explores present realities, and imagines a future in which people struggle not only for justice, but for the stars.
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