Nnedi Okorafor

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Nnedi Okorafor (full name: Nnedimma Nkemdili Okorafor (formerly Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu)) is an African-American writer of fantasy and speculative fiction. The American-born daughter of Igbo Nigerian parents, she has regularly visited Nigeria since she was very young. Her novels and stories reflect both her West African heritage and her American life.

She is the author of The Shadow Speaker (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun) and Zahrah the Windseeker (Houghton Mifflin). Zahrah is the winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. It was also shortlisted for the 2005 Carl Brandon Parallax and Kindred Awards and a finalist for the Garden State Teen Book Award and the Golden Duck Award. The Shadow Speaker was a Booksense Pick for Winter 2007/2008, a Tiptree Honor Book, a finalist for the Essence Magazine Literary Award, the Andre Norton Award and the Golden Duck Award and an NAACP Image Award nominee.

Okorafor's children's book, Long Juju Man, is the 2007/08 winner of the Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa^[1]. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines, including Dark Matter II, Strange Horizons, Moondance magazine and Writers of the Future Volume XVIII. She received a 2001 Hurston/Wright literary award ^[2] for her story "Amphibious Green."

Okorafor holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago and lives with her daughter Anyaugo and family in Illinois. (She no longer uses the "-Mbachu" part of her name, as that reflects a marriage which has ended; but many writings about her and her works reflect the former name.)

[edit] Bibliography

• Zahrah the Windseeker (2005, Houghton Mifflin; paperback 2008, Houghton Mifflin/Graphia)
• The Shadow Speaker (2007, Hyperion/Disney)
• Long Juju Man (forthcoming 2008, Macmillan UK)

[edit] References

1. ^ Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa: 2007/8 Winners and Shortlist[1]
2. ^ Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers: Recent Winners[2]

[edit] External links

• Nnedi Okorafor Home Page
• New York Times Review of The Shadow Speaker by Donna Freitas
• Review of Zahrah the Windseeker by Gary K. Wolfe
• "Stephen King's Super-Duper Magical Negroes" by Okorafor-Mbachu
• Stories by Okorafor at AfricanWriter.com