Her writing and public speaking have established her as a prominent voice in contemporary literature and a global feminist icon.
Background and Early Life
Born in Enugu, Nigeria, in 1977, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the fifth of six children to an Igbo family. Her parents, James Nwoye Adichie and Grace Ifeoma, both worked at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, where Adichie grew up in a comfortable, middle-class household. She was an avid reader from a young age and started writing at seven.
Adichie briefly studied medicine and pharmacy at the University of Nigeria before moving to the United States at age 19 to pursue a degree in communication and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University, where she graduated summa cum laude.
She later earned a master's degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts in African History from Yale University.
Key Achievements and Works
Adichie's career is marked by numerous literary awards, fellowships, and critical acclaim.
Literary Works ✍️
1. Purple Hibiscus (2003): Her debut novel, which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book.
2. Half of a Yellow Sun (2006): This novel, set during the Nigerian Civil War, won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and was later named the "Best of the Best" of the second decade of the Women's Prize for Fiction.
3. Americanah (2013): It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2013.
4. The Thing Around Your Neck (2009): A collection of short stories.
5. We Should All Be Feminists (2014): A long-form essay adapted from her famous 2012 TEDx Talk. A portion of the talk was famously sampled in Beyoncé's song "Flawless."
6. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017): An essay on raising a daughter as a feminist.
7. Notes on Grief (2021): A memoir exploring her father's death.
Awards and Honors
In addition to her literary prizes, Adichie has received several prestigious honors:
1. A MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in 2008.
* She was named one of TIME Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2015.
2. Her TED Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story," is one of the most-viewed TED Talks of all time.