Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
| Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | |
|---|---|
 Adichie, Lagos 2009 |
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| Born | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie September 15, 1977 Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Ethnicity | Igbo |
| Period | 2003-present |
| Notable work(s) | Purple Hibiscus Half of a Yellow Sun |
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Influences
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born September 15, 1977) is a Nigerian writer.
Her family is of Igbo descent.[1] She has been called "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [which] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature".[2]
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[edit] Early life and education
Born in the town of Enugu, she grew up in the university town of Nsukka in southeastern Nigeria, where the University of Nigeria is situated. While she was growing up, her father was a professor of statistics at the university, and her mother was the university registrar.
Adichie studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Nigeria for a year and a half. During this period, she edited The Compass, a magazine run by the university's Catholic medical students. At the age of 19, Adichie left Nigeria and moved to the United States for college. After studying communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, she transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University to live closer to her sister, who had a medical practice in Coventry. She received a bachelor's degree from Eastern, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2001.
In 2003, she completed a master's degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University. In 2008, she received a Master of Arts in African studies from Yale University.
Adichie was a Hodder fellow at Princeton University during the 2005-2006 academic year. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She has also been awarded a 2011-2012 fellowship by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
[edit] Career
Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was released in 2003. The book received wide critical acclaim; it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction (2004) and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (2005). Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, named after the flag of the short-lived nation of Biafra, is set before and during the Biafran War. It was awarded the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction.
Her third book, The Thing Around Your Neck, is a collection of short stories published in 2009.
Adichie's story, "Ceiling", was included in the 2011 edition of The Best American Short Stories.
[edit] Personal life
Adichie, who is married, divides her time between Nigeria, where she teaches writing workshops, and the United States.
[edit] References
- ^ Nixon, Rob (October 1, 2006). "A Biafran Story". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/books/review/Nixon.t.html. Retrieved 25 Jan 2009.
- ^ James Copnall, "Steak Knife", The Times Literary Supplement, 16 December 2011, p.20.
[edit] External links
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, "Quality Street", Guernica Magazine
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, "Half of a Yellow Sun", Literary Potpourri[dead link]
- "Debut novel from Nigeria storms Orange shortlist", The Guardian
- The Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Website (Unofficial)
- "The new face of Nigerian literature?" BBC News
- Chimamanda Adichie speaks at TED: "The Danger of a Single Story", July 2009
- Audio: Chimanda Adichie, on The Forum, BBC World Service discussion
- 1977 births
- Living people
- Nigerian novelists
- Nigerian writers
- Igbo novelists
- Igbo women writers
- Igbo writers
- People from Enugu State
- Nigerian women writers
- Wesleyan University faculty
- Drexel University alumni
- Eastern Connecticut State University alumni
- Johns Hopkins University alumni
- Yale University alumni
- MacArthur Fellows
