Moonyani Wright Creates New Worlds Where Music Becomes Magic

December 5th, 2025

Visitors walking through Westroads Mall may expect boutiques and gift kiosks, but they might not expect to discover an author building entire universes from a small booth. That is where Omaha writer Moonyani Wright shares her sci-fi fantasy trilogy, The Music Man, a series that blends time travel, magical dimensions, and the power of music.

Wright, a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a degree in psychology, began the trilogy in 2014. What started as a single poem grew into a full narrative about a teenage runaway who finds refuge with a stranger named Cornelius, a mysterious figure known only as The Music Man. Their connection through music becomes a doorway into an alternate realm, one shaped by imagination and emotion.

Although Wright finished the first book in 2017, she hesitated to publish. That changed when she saw Pixar’s Coco, a film about a boy transported to another world through a musical moment. The parallel to her own story gave her the confidence to move forward. By 2018, the first installment was in print, and two more followed. Today, the trilogy is available on Amazon and Audible in print, audio, and digital formats.

Wright’s work stands apart in the sci-fi and fantasy landscape because she centers African American characters in magical adventures without tying their identities to trauma. Her goal is to create the kind of stories she wished she had growing up, where kids who look like her can simply be heroes. Her books reflect her love of classical music, including years spent playing violin and piano, and her belief that representation should celebrate joy, imagination, and the full emotional life of young readers.

Her creativity is not limited to the page. Wright has written a screenplay adaptation of her first novel and hopes to eventually move into filmmaking. She has acted in local theater productions and sees screenwriting and film as the next steps in her artistic journey, another way to broaden representation in genres where it has been historically limited.

With her trilogy complete and new creative paths opening, Wright continues to build stories that invite readers into worlds shaped by music, courage, and possibility.