Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: born in Lagos, Nigeria, and with MA degrees in Literature in English from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife and a MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ has written for the BBC, LitHub, The Guardian(UK) and others.
Her internationally acclaimed novel STAY WITH ME, published in 2017, was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications.
Stay With Me is an extraordinary novel about femininity, marriage, love and loss, a journey into a woman’s quest for the truth and marriage’s delicate balance, made of secrets, tenderness, loneliness and forgiveness. With her solid, poignant and charming style and her honest portrait of vulnerable and complex characters, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ is definitely one to watch. Visit her website for more information.
Nnedi Okorafor: Okorafor is a Nigerian-American writer and professor of creative writing and literature at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). With a master’s degree in journalism and PhD in English from the University of Illinois, she is author of fantasy and science fiction for both children and adults. Okorafor’s short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines.
After her 2001 Hurston-Wright award, she published two acclaimed books for young adults, The Shadow Speaker (Hyperion/Disney Book Group) and Zahrah the Windseeker. Okorafor recently announced that her Okorafor’s first adult novel, Who Fears Death (DAW/Penguin Books), which won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, was picked up by HBO to become a TV series with novelist and Game of Thrones producer, George R.R. Martin, joining the project as an executive producer.
The third volume of her Binti trilogy, Binti: The Night Masquerade was published in January 2018, and concludes a saga started with the novella Binti, published in 2015 and followed by Binti 2: Home published in 2017. If you are fans of Black Panther and Afrofuturism you should definitely check her out!
Yrsa Daley-Ward: born in England of West Indian and West African heritage, Yrsa Daley-Ward is an incredible and talented artist: poet, model and actor, she is known for her debut book, Bone, as well as for her spoken-word poetry on topics such as identity, race, mental health, and femininity and depression. First self-published in 2014 and subsequently issued by Penguin Books in 2017, with additional poems and including an introductory essay by Kiese Laymon, Bone is a striking work, emotionally stirring and powerful. The poet masterfully conveys her pain and struggle, her passion and strength with a poignant and unmistakeable style.
The Terrible, her memoir, is due for release in June 2018 by Penguin Random House.
Tomi Adeyemi: Alt A got you covered, young readers! Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil.
Her internationally praised West African YA Fantasy novel Children Of Blood And Bone (Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan) is New York Times #1 Bestseller and will be adapted into a movie by Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions and producers Karen Rosenfelt and Marty Bowen (Twilight, Maze Runner, The Fault In Our Stars).
Peter Kimani: leading African writer of his generation, born in 1971 in Kenya, he started his career as a journalist and has published several works of fiction and poetry. Kimani earned his doctorate in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program in 2014, and is a faculty member at Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications in Nairobi. Dance of the Jakaranda, his third novel, was published in 2018: set in the shadow of Kenya’s independence from Great Britain, Dance of the Jakaranda reimagines the special circumstances that brought black, brown, and white men together to lay the railroad that
You must log in to post a comment.