Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Novelist and Writer
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian novelist and non-fiction writer whose work has been recognised globally, appearing in numerous publications that include the Financial Times, The New Yorker, The O. Henry Prize Stories, Granta, and Zoetrope. Inspired by the late Professor Chinua Achebe after reading his Things Fall Apart at the age of 10 and after having lived in the house that the late professor once lived, Adichie’s writing centres on the Nigerian experience. She once said she was inspired when she realised that people like her could live in books. Adichie’s work has been translated into more than 30 languages.
A graduate of communication and political science from Eastern Connecticut State University (B.A., 2001), Adichie’s first novel Purple Hibiscus (2003) won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. She is also the author of Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) which won the Orange Prize, recognised as a New York Times Notable Book and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. Her third novel Americanah (2013) won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013. Adichie is also the author of the story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), her most recent book, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions was published in 2017.
Adichie has been invited to speak in different events in different parts of the world; her notable 2009 Ted Talk The Danger of A Single Story is one of the most-viewed TED Talks. In 2012, her talk We Should All Be Feminists sparked worldwide conversation about feminism which was later published as a book in 2014. On 19 May 2019, she gave a speech (Class Day Speech) at the Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, to mark the school’s 318th Commencement and to celebrate the graduating Yale College class. She is the first African to give the Class Day Speech at Yale. Adichie is back to Yale, where in 2008 she had studied for a master’s degree in African studies. Prior to her master’s from Yale, she studied creative writing at Johns Hopkins University.
A MacArthur Fellow (2008) and one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2015, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is our Woman of the Week because she is a source of great inspiration, an exemplary character, and a globally recognised strong voice for women.
Sources:
AnswersAfrica. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Husband, Family, Education, Biography, Facts, Mon. 17 June 2019, https://answersafrica.com/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html
Chimamanda Adichie. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mon. 17 June 2019, https://www.chimamanda.com/about-chimamanda/
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mon. 17 June 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie
Vanguard. Chimamanda makes history as first African to speak at Yale’s Class Day, Mon. 17 June 2019, https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/05/chimamanda-makes-history-as-first-african-to-speak-at-yales-class-day/
YaleNews. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ’08 M.A. to speak at Class Day, Mon. 17 June 2019, https://news.yale.edu/2019/03/04/author-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-08-ma-speak-class-day
