Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a renowned Nigerian author and public intellectual, celebrated for her powerful novels which explore themes of identity, feminism, and post-colonialism. She is also a prominent advocate for gender equality, known for her TED Talk "We Should All Be Feminists."

Adichie was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and grew up on the campus of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where her father was a professor and her mother was the first female registrar. She studied medicine for a year at Nsukka before leaving for the U.S. at the age of 19 to continue her education on a different path. She graduated summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University with a degree in Communication and Political Science. Adichie also has a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts degree in African History from Yale University. She was awarded a Hodder fellowship at Princeton University for the 2005-2006 academic year, and a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University for the 2011-2012 academic year. In 2008, Adichie received a MacArthur Fellowship.

Adichie's first novel, "Purple Hibiscus," won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and her second novel, "Half of a Yellow Sun," won the Orange Prize. Her 2013 novel, "Americanah," won the US National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages.

Adichie has received honorary doctorate degrees from Eastern Connecticut State University, Johns Hopkins University, Haverford College, Williams College, the University of Edinburgh, Duke University, Amherst College, Bowdoin College, SOAS University of London, American University, Georgetown University, Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, Skidmore College and University of Johannesburg.

She was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015, and Fortune Magazine named her one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in 2017. She is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Adichie divides her time between the United States and Nigeria, where she leads an annual creative writing workshop.