Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Who is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian novelist, short-story writer and essayist, and one of the most influential contemporary African authors. Born in Enugu and raised in the university town of Nsukka, she initially studied medicine before moving to the United States to study communications and later creative writing. Her debut novel Purple Hibiscus (2003) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), set during the Nigerian Civil War, won the Orange Prize for Fiction and was later adapted into a film. Americanah (2013), exploring race, identity and migration, won the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award. Her TEDx talks 'We Should All Be Feminists' and 'The Danger of a Single Story' reached global audiences, the former sampled in popular music and published as an essay. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2008 and has become a prominent voice on feminism and storytelling.

Sources: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) · Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (2013) · Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists (2014) · MacArthur Foundation Fellowship 2008