Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian novelist, Nonfiction writer and short story writer. ^[2] A MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, James Copnall wrote in the Times Literary Supplement dat she was “the must prominently” or a “procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [therein] is succeeding in Attracting a new generation of readers to African literature “. ^[3]

Personal life and education

Adichie, who was born in the city of Enugu , Grew up the fifth or six children in an Igbo family in the university town of Nsukka . Nsukka in Enugu State , southeast Nigeria, where the University of Nigeria is situated. While she was growing up, re Father James Nwoye Adichie, was a professor of statistics at the university, and re mother, Grace Ifeoma was the university’s first female registrar. ^[4] Her family’s Ancestral Village in Abba in Anambra State . ^[5]

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 for the United States to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She soon Transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University to be near re sister, who had a medical practice in Coventry . She RECEIVED a bachelor’s degree from Eastern, ^[6] with the Distinction of summa cum laude in 2001. ^[7]

In 2003, she COMPLETED a master’s degree in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University . ^[8] In 2008, she RECEIVED a Master of Arts degree in African studies from Yale University . ^[9]

Adichie was a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University prolongation the 2005-06 academic year. In 2008 she was Awarded a MacArthur Fellowship . ^[10] She was ook Awarded a 2011-12 fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study , Harvard University . ^[7]

Adichie Divides re-time tussen Nigeria, where she teaches writing workshops, and the United States. ^[11] In 2016 she was conferred an honorary degree – Doctor of Humane letters, honoris causa , at Johns Hopkins University. ^{[12] [13]}

In a 2 July 2016 interview with the Financial Times she zegt dat she had a baby daughter. ^[14]

Writing career

Adichie published a collection of poems in 1997 ( Decisions ) and a play ( For Love of Biafra ) in 1998. She was shortlisted in 2002 for the Caine Prize ^[15] for re short story “You in America”. ^[16]

In 2003, re Story “That Harmattan Morning” was selected as a joint winner of the BBC Short Story Award, and she was awarded the O. Henry prize for “The American Embassy”. She’ll be awarded the David T. Wong International Short Story Prize 2002/2003 (PEN Center Award). ^[17]

Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), RECEIVED wide critical Acclaim; it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction (2004) ^[18] and was Awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (2005). ^[19]

Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), named after the flag of the short-lived nation of Biafra , is set before and prolongation the Nigerian Civil War . It RECEIVED the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. ^[20] Half of a Yellow Sun has leg Adapted JSON a film of the co-title directed by Biyi Bandele , starring BAFTA winner and Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor and BAFTA award-winner Thandie Newton , and was released in 2014. ^[21]

Her third book, The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), a collection of twelve stories dat explore the relationships between it and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.

In 2010 she was listed onder the authors of The New Yorker ‘s “20 Under 40” Fiction Issue. ^[22] Adichie’s story “Ceiling” was included in the 2011 edition of The Best American Short Stories .

Her third novel, Americanah (2013), an exploration of a young Nigerian Encountering race in America, was selected by the New York Times as one of The 10 Best Books of 2013. ^[23]

In April 2014, she was named as one of 39 writers aged under 40 ^[24] in the Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club project Africa39 , celebrating Port Harcourt UNESCO World Book Capital 2014. ^[25]

In 2015, she was co-curator of the PEN World Voices Festival. ^[26]

In a 2014 interview, Adichie said on feminism and writing, “I think of myself as a Storyteller, but I mention anything not mind at all if someone ulcers to think of me as a feminist writer … I’m very feminist in the way I look at the world, and therein worldview must somehow be part of my work. ” ^[27]

Lectures

Adichie ghosts on “The Danger of a Single Story” for TED in 2009. ^[28] On 15 March 2012, she delivered the “Connecting Cultures” Commonwealth Lecture 2012 at the Guildhall, London . ^[29] Adichie ook ghosts on being a feminist for TEDxEuston in December 2012, with re speech entitled, “We should all be feminists.” ^[30] This speech was sampled for the 2013 song ” *** Flawless ” by American performer Beyonce , where it attracted attention remit.

“The Danger of a Single Story” TED talk

Adichie ghosts in a TED talk entitled “The Danger of a Single Story” posted in October 2009. ^[28] In it, she expresses concern for re underrepresentation or verschillende cultures. ^[31] She wordt uitgelegd dat as a young child, she had read of or in American and British stories where the characters ulcers primarily Hispanic.

At the lecture, she zegt dat the underrepresentation or cultural differences’ may be dangerous: “Now, I loved Those American and British books I read. Way Down Stirred my imagination. Way Down opened up new worlds for me. But the unintended Consequence was dat I did not know dat people like me Could exist in literature. ” ^[31]

Throughout the lecture, she-used personal anecdotes to Illustrate the belang or sharing différent stories. She briefly discussed hun houseboy, Fide, and how she only we knew or how poor hun was family. When Adichie’s family visited Fide’s village, Fide’s mother Showed Them a basket therein Fide’s brother had made. Adichie zegt, “It had not occurred to me dat anybody in his family Could actually do something. All I had overheard about Them was how poor they ‘ulcers, so dat it had Become Impossible for me to see Them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them. ” ^[31] She’ll be zegt dat als leaving Nigeria to go to Drexel University , she Encountered the effects of the underrepresentation or re own culture. Her American roommate was surprised dat Adichie was effluent in English and dat she did not listen to tribal music. ^[32] She zegt die, “My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe. In this single story, there was no Possibility of Africans being similar to re ‘any way, no Possibility of feelings more complex dan pity, no Possibility of a connection as human equals. ” ^[31]

She concluded the lecture by noting the significance of différent stories in verschillende cultures and the representation dat ze Deserve. She advocated for a grotere understanding or stories Because people are complex, saying dat at only understanding a single story, one misinterprets people, hun Backgrounds, en hun historically.

“We should all be feminists” TEDx talk, and “Flawless” song verses

In 2012, Adichie delivered a TEDx talk Titled: “We should all be feminists.” She shared re experiences of being an African feminist, and re views on gender construction and sexuality. Adichie zegt dat the problem with gender is dat it shapes who we are. ^[30] She’ll be zegt, “I am angry. Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of Bringing about positive change, but in addition under to being angry, I’m ook Hopeful Because I believe deeply in the ability of human beings to make and remake themselves for the better. ” ^[33]

Parts of Adichie’s TED talk ulcers sampled in Beyoncé ‘s song ” Flawless ” in January 2013. ^[34]

We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller
We say to girls: ” ‘You can harbor ambition, but not too much
You arnt aim to be successful, but not too successful
otherwise, you will threaten the man”
Because I am female, I am pure chance to Aspire to marriage
I am pure chance to make my life choices
Always keeping in mind dat marriage is the must important
Now, marriage kan be a source of joy and love and mutual support
But why do we teach girls to Aspire to marriage
and we do not teach boys the association?
We raise girls to see eachother as competitors
Not for jobs or for accomplishments, welke I think kan be a good thing
But for the attention of whether
we teach girls dat ze kan not be sexual beings in the way therein boys are
Feminist: a person who believes in the social
Political, and economic equality of the lunyje ^{[35] [36]}

Harper Collins published an essay based on the speech as a standalone volume, we Should All Be Feminists in 2014. She later zegt in an NPR interview that ‘anything dat gets young people talking about feminism is a very good thing. ” ^[4] She later qualified the statement in an interview with the Dutch magazine De Volkskrant : “Another thing I hated was dat I read everywhere: now people finally know re, thanks to Beyonce, or: she must be very Grateful. I found dat disappointing. I thought: I am a writer and I harbor leg for sometime and I refuse to perform in this charade dat is now apparently pure chance or me: “Thanks to Beyonce, my life will never be the co-again.” That’s why I did not speak about it much. ” ^[37]

Adichie has clarified dat re mn feminism differs from Beyoncé’s, met name in hun disagreements about the role Occupied by one in women’s lives, saying that ‘Her style is not my style, but I do find it interesting dat she takes a position in political and social issues, since a few years. She portrays a woman who is in charge or re own destiny, who does re own thing, and she has girl power. I am very tasks with that. ” ^[37] Nevertheless, she has leg outspoken Against critics who question the singer’s credentials as a feminist and zegt dat “called Whoever says they’re feminist is bloody feminist.” ^[38]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	result
2002	Caine Prize for African Writing	“You in America”	Nominated [A]
	Commonwealth Short Story Competition	“The Tree in Grandma’s Garden”	Nominated [B]
	BBCmeasuring Competition	“That Harmattan Morning”	Won [C]
2002/2003	David T. Wong International Short Story Prize ( PEN American Center Award)	“Half of a Yellow Sun	won
2003	O. Henry Prize	“The American Embassy”	won
2004	Hurston-Wright Legacy Award : Best Debut Fiction Category	Purple Hibiscus	won
	Orange Prize		Nominated [A]
	Booker Prize		Nominated [D]
	Young Adult Library Services Association Best Books for Young Adults Award		Nominated
2004/2005	John Llewellyn Rhys Prize		Nominated [A]
2005	Commonwealth Writers’ Prize : Best First Book (Africa)		won
	Commonwealth Writers’ Prize: Best First Book (overall)		won
2006	National Book Critics Circle Award	Half of a Yellow Sun	Nominated
2007	British Book Awards : “Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year” category		Nominated
	James Tait Black Memorial Prize		Nominated
	Commonwealth Writers’ Prize: Best Book (Africa)		Nominated [A]
	Anisfield-Wolf Book Award , Fiction category		Won [C]
	PEN Beyond Margins Award		Won [C]
	Orange Broadband Prize: Fiction category		won
2008	International IMPAC Dublin Award	herself	Nominated
	Reader’s Digest Author of the Year Award		won
	Future Award, Nigeria: Young Person of the Year category [39]		won
	MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant [40]		won
2009	International Nonino Prize [41]		won
	Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award	The Thing Around Your Neck	Nominated [D]
	John Llewellyn Rhys Prize		Nominated [A]
2010	Commonwealth Writers’ Prize: Best Book (Africa)		Nominated [A]
	Dayton Literary Peace Prize		Nominated [B]
2011	ThisDay Awards: “New Champions for an Enduring Culture” category	herself	Nominated
2013	Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize : Fiction category	Americanah	won
	National Book Critics Circle Award: Fiction category [42] [43] [44]		won
2014	Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction [45]		Nominated [A]
	Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction [46]		Nominated [A]
	MTV Africa Music Awards 2014 : Personality of the Year [47]	herself	Nominated
International Dublin Literary Award	Americanah	Nominated [A]

A ^ Shortlisted

B ^ Runner-up

C ^ Joint win

D ^ Longlisted

Other Recognitions

• 2010 Listed onder The New Yorker ‘s “20 Under 40”
• 2013 Listed onder New York Times ‘ “Ten Best Books of 2013”, for Americanah
• 2013 Listed onder BBC’s “Top Ten Books of 2013”, for Americanah
• 2013 Foreign Policy magazine “Top Global Thinkers of 2013” ^[48]
• 2013 Listed onder the New African ‘s “100 Most Influential Africans 2013”
• 2014 Listed onder Africa39 project or 39 writers aged under 40
• 2015 Listed onder Time Magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People” ^[49]

Bibliography

Books

• Purple Hibiscus . 2003.
• Half of a Yellow Sun , 2006 ISBN 978-0-00-720028-3
• The Thing Around Your Neck , 2009, ISBN 978-0-307-37523-0
• Americanah , 2013 ISBN 978-0-307-96212-6

Essays Published in Book Format

• We Should All Be Feminists , 2014 ISBN 978-0008115272
• Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions , 2017 ISBN 978-1524733131

Short fiction

title	Year	First published
“Checking Out”	2013	Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (18 March 2013). “Checking Out” . The New Yorker . 89 (5): 66-73.
“Apollo”	2015	Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (13 April 2015). “Apollo” . The New Yorker . 91 (8): 64-69.
“The Arrangements”: A Work of Fiction “	2016	Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (3 July 2016). ” ” The Arrangements “: A Work of Short Fiction” . The New York Times Book Review .

Discography

Guest appearances

• ” *** Flawless ” ( Beyonce featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

Notes

References

By Slowking – Own work, GFDL 1.2, Link