Nnedi Okorafor

**Nnedi Okorafor** (full name: **Nnedimma Nkemdili Okorafor**; also known as **Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu**; born April 8, 1974) is a Nigerian-American writer. She writes fantasy  and science fiction.

## Background and personal life

Okrafor was born in the United States. Her parents are members of the Igbo group from Nigeria. She has visited Nigeria many times since she was very young. While she studied Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Ill., Okorafor was a good tennis player and did very well studying science. Later, she found out she had scoliosis. This condition and surgery to fix it ended Okorafor's student athletic career. It made it difficult for her to walk. She started writing as a hobby while she recovered from surgery. Her novels and stories show both her West African life and her American life. In 2001 Okorafor graduated of the Clarion Writers Workshop in Lansing, Michigan. She earned a PhD in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She is an associate professor of creative writing and literature at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). She lives in both Buffalo and Olympia Fields, Illinois with her family.

## Writing and awards

Okorafor received a 2001 Hurston-Wright literary award for her story "Amphibious Green."  She then published two books for young adults, _The Shadow Speaker_ (Hyperion/Disney Book Group) and _Zahrah the Windseeker_ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). _Zahrah_ won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.  _The Shadow Speaker_ was a winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award, a Booksense Pick for Winter 2007/2008, a Tiptree Honor Book, Okorafor's children's book _Long Juju Man_ was the 2007–08 winner of the Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa.

Okorafor's first novel for adults, _Who Fears Death_ (DAW/Penguin Books), won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, was a 2011 Tiptree Honor Book and was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award.

Okorafor's short stories have been published in books and magazines, including _Dark Matter: Reading The Bones_, _Strange Horizons_, _Moondance_ magazine, and _Writers of the Future_ Volume XVIII. A collection of her stories, called _Kabu Kabu_, was published by Prime Books in 2013. It includes the story _Kabu Kabu_ that she wrote with Alan Dean Foster. Whoopi Goldberg wrote the foreword to the book.

## Writing

**Young Adult**—writing as Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
- _Zahrah the Windseeker_ (2005, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; paperback 2008, Graphia/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- _The Shadow Speaker_ (2007, Hyperion/Disney)

**Children**— writing as Nnedi Okorafor
- _Long Juju Man_ (2009, Macmillan Africa)
- _Iridessa and the Secret of the Never Mine_ (2012, Disney Books)

### Young Adult

- _Akata Witch_ (2011, Viking/Penguin) (Published as _What Sunny Saw in the Flames_ in Nigeria and the UK by Cassava Republic Press)
- _Akata Warrior_ (2017)
- _Ikenga_ (2020)
- _Akata Woman_ (2022)

### Adult

writing as Nnedi Okorafor
- _Who Fears Death_ (2010, DAW/Penguin)
- "Hello, Moto" (2011, A Tor.Com Original short story)
- "Moom!" short story in "AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers" (2012, Storytime)
- Lagoon
- Binti (2015, novella)
- Binti: Home (2017, novella)
- Binti: Night Masquerade (2018, novella)
- Remote Control (2021, novella)
- Noor (2021)
- She Who Knows: Firespitter (2024)

## Other websites

- Nnedi Okorafor Home Page
- Mikki Kendall, Profile: "A Nigerian Sorceress Makes Her Way", _Publishers Weekly_, April 12, 2010
- Donna Freitas, "Weapons of Mass Creation", _New York Times_ review of _The Shadow Speaker_, July 13, 2008
- Nebula Awards Guest Blog: Is Africa Ready for Science Fiction by Nnedi Okorafor
- Review of _Zahrah the Windseeker_ by Gary K. Wolfe
- "Stephen King's Super-Duper Magical Negroes" by Okorafor-Mbachu
- "From the Lost Diary of TreeFrog7" (short story), _Clarkesworld Magazine_, May 2009
- Stories by Okorafor at AfricanWriter.com
- "If It Scares You, Write It: A Conversation with Nnedi Okorafor" (interview), _Clarkesworld Magazine_, December 2009
- 2010 Audio Interview on the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Podcast

## Infobox (artist)

- **name**: Nnedi Okorafor
- **image**: Nnedi Okorafor.jpg
- **caption**: Nnedi Okorafor
- **birth place**: Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
- **nationality**: Nigerian American
- **field**: Writer, professor
- **alma mater**: University of Illinois, Chicago (PhD)
- **awards**: Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa
World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, The World Fantasy Award
The Nebula Awards, Nebula Award for Best Novella
The Hugo Awards, Hugo Award for Best Novella
Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa
Carl Brandon Society#The CBS Parallax and Kindred Awards, Carl Brandon Parallax Award
 Children’s Africana Book Award