Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedimma Nkemdili "Nnedi" Okorafor (ma bí Okorafor-Mbachu; efu óchu ekélé nolu méjo efu ódò , 1974) íche oma  Nigerian American kía kí ótakada yí science fiction kpaí fantasy lugbo abo ogijo manyu Abímoto í chéné ku ma ñyọ ñyọ efu eñwu ye í Binti Series kpaí ótakada oluka kí ko  Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon manyu  Remote Control. Í che eñ ko‘takada eíShe  comics kpai ífímu.

Ótakada ñw kí ko ché ye í  Africanfuturism kpaí Africanjujuism, kí chí yeokpalí todu úché aalí ye í Nigerian kpaí American kí gba. ìchẹ kì chẹ gɓà àwọɗù ŵèwè,She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Eisner Award and World Fantasy Award. She is considered to be among the third generation of Nigerian writers.

 Background and personal life 
Nnedimma Nkemdili Okorafor mábí efúewo  Cincinnati, Ohio, efù ọdọ  1974  Atá kpáì ìye nwu çhì ìgbọtì Igbo.  Má lotì úlẹ ojìánẹ Amẹnẹfù efù ọdọ 1969 náćhì ćhegbúlú    ámáá má neke dábìwá wì  Nigeria átòdú újá Cívíl Nigerian .  íćhe nì ọtákídá ọmánẹ ámẹnẹfú kgáì Nigeria.https://twitter.com/nnedi/status/1288127980506509313

Okorafor ćhi ẹnẹkẹ ẹtá efú ámọmá mẹlẹ kúmáćhe is the third child in a family of four children and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, often travelling to Nigeria to spend holidays with her extended family. Her first name is Igbo for "mother is good".

During her years attending Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Illinois, Okorafor was a nationally-known tennis and track star and excelled in math and the sciences. She wanted to be an entomologist.

She was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 13, a condition that worsened as she grew older. At age 19, she underwent spinal fusion surgery to straighten and fuse her spine; a rare complication led to Okorafor becoming paralyzed from the waist down.

Okorafor turned to writing small stories in the margins of a science-fiction book that she had. It was the first time she had ever written anything creatively. That summer, with intense physical therapy, Okorafor regained her ability to walk with a cane, but she was unable to continue her athletic career. At the suggestion of a friend, she took a creative writing class that spring semester and was writing her first novel by the semester's end.

She completed her college education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, before obtaining a master's degree in journalism from Michigan State University and a master's degree and PhD in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She is a 2001 graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop in Lansing, Michigan. She currently lives in Arizona with her family.

 Work 

 Short stories 
Okorafor received a 2001 Hurston-Wright literary award for her story "Amphibious Green". Okorafor's short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines, including Dark Matter: Reading The Bones, Enkare Review, Strange Horizons, Moondance magazine, and Writers of the Future Volume XVIII. A collection of her stories, titled Kabu Kabu, was published by Prime Books in 2013. It includes the titular piece, co-authored by Alan Dean Foster, six other previously unpublished short stories, and 14 stories that had been previously published in other venues since 2001, with a foreword by Whoopi Goldberg.

Novels and novellas
After her 2001 Hurston-Wright award, she published two acclaimed books for young adults, The Shadow Speaker (Hyperion/Disney Book Group) and Zahrah the Windseeker (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). The Shadow Speaker was a winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award, 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. Her children's book, Long Juju Man, was the 2007–08 winner of the Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa.

Okorafor's first adult novel, Who Fears Death (DAW/Penguin Books), won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award. The prequel The Book of Phoenix won the 2018 Kurd Laßwitz Preis and was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

In 2011, she returned to young adult with Akata Witch (Viking/Penguin), the first book in the Nsibidi Scripts Series, which was a Junior Library Guild Selection. The sequel, Akata Warrior, went on to win the 2018 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book.

Okorafor's science fiction novel Lagoon was a finalist for a British Science Fiction Association Award (Best Novel), a Red Tentacle Award (Best Novel), and a Tiptree Honor Book.

The Binti trilogy began with the 2015 novella, Binti. This was followed by Binti: Home, published in 2017, and Binti: The Night Masquerade, published in 2018. Binti won both the 2016 Nebula Award and 2016 Hugo Award for best novella, and was a finalist for a British Science Fiction Association Award (Best Short) and BooktubeSFF Award (Best Short Work). Binti: Home and Binti: The Night Masquerade both received Hugo nominations for best novella in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Also in 2016, the United Bank for Africa, a Nigerian bank, partnered with Cassava Republic Press to distribute 24,000 copies of Okorafor's novel Akata Witch in nine African countries.

In 2020, Okorafor released her middle grade novel Ikenga, which was nominated for the Edgar Award.

Okorafor's science fiction novella Remote Control, set in a near future Ghana, was published in January 2021. Her adult novel Noor, set in a futurist northern Nigeria, was released in November 2021.

In January 2022, Okorafor's Akata Woman, the third novel in the Nsibidi Scripts Series, was released. Following the release of the novel, the series debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list.

In 2023, Okorafor announced her novella trilogy She Who Knows which would serve as a prequel and sequel to her 2010 novel Who Fears Death and would focus on the life of Najeeba, Onyesonwu's mother. The first novella is scheduled for publication in 2024. 

 Adaptations 
In February 2017, Okorafor announced via Facebook that her science-meets-witchcraft short story "Hello, Moto" had been optioned by Nigerian production company Fiery Film. The story was adapted into a short film, titled Hello, Rain by filmmaker C. J. Obasi. The story tells the tale of a woman who discovers that she can merge witchcraft and technology when she creates wigs for herself and her friends that allow them to wield influence and power, to help battle corruption. Instead, she watches her friends themselves become corrupted. A teaser was released in January 2018. Hello, Rain had its world premiere at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen on May 6, 2018.

In July 2017, Okorafor announced via Twitter that Who Fears Death had been picked up by HBO to become a television series, with novelist and Game of Thrones producer George R. R. Martin joining the project as an executive producer. Okorafor will remain involved with the project as a consultant. In January 2021, it was announced that Tessa Thompson's newly formed production company, Viva Maude, had joined the team.

In April 2019, it was announced that Okorafor would co-write the screenplay of an adaptation of Octavia Butler's Wild Seed with filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu for Amazon Prime Video and reportedly  will be produced by Viola Davis.

In January 2020, it was announced that Okorafor would co-write the screenplay of an adaptation of her Binti trilogy for Hulu with writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour.

Other work
In 2005, Okorafor wrote and published her first play, Full Moon. The Buxville Theater Company in Chicago helped produce this full-length theatrical work.

In 2009, Okorafor donated her archive to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Northern Illinois University Library.Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection , Northern Illinois University.

Okorafor was the Young Adult Author special Guest of Honor at Detcon1, the 2014 North American Science Fiction Convention; Detcon1 was putting special emphasis on YA science fiction.

She spoke at the TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, Tanzania, in August 2017.

In October 2017, Okorafor announced via Twitter she would be writing three issues for Marvel's Black Panther comic, picking up where author Ta-Nehisi Coates left off. The first issue of Black Panther: Long Live the King was released in December 2017. A month earlier, a short comic of hers titled "Blessing in Disguise" was included in Marvel's Venomverse War Stories No. 1, inspired by the 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls. In March 2017, it was announced that she would return to writing derived from the Black Panther, in Wakanda Forever, where the Dora Milaje team-up with Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Avengers. In July 2018, it announced that Okorafor would write a solo title focused on Black Panther's sister, Shuri.

Broken Places & Outer Spaces, Okorafor's first non-fiction title, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2019.

Okorafor contributed the essay "Zula of the fourth-grade playground" to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.

In 2018, her comic book limited series LaGuardia was published by Berger Books. In 2020, the collected trade won an Eisner Award and a Hugo Award.

 Influences and themes 
Okorafor's novels and stories reflect both her West African heritage and her American life. Rather than identifying as Nigerian-American, she refers to herself as "Naijamerican" and explains the importance of her dual heritage during a 2016 NPR interview: That's very much a part of my identity, and it's also very much a reason why I think I ended up writing science fiction and fantasy because I live on these borders – and these borders that allow me to see from multiple perspectives and kind of take things in and then kind of process certain ideas and certain stories in a very unique way. And that has led me to write this strange fiction that I write, which really isn't that strange if you really look at it through a sort of skewed lens.  Okorafor noticed how the fantasy and science fiction genre contain little diversity, and that was her motivation for writing books of these genres set in Africa. She wanted to include more people of color and create stories with Africa as the setting because so few stories were set there. She wrote her first story as a college sophomore and made the setting of her story Nigeria. Her stories place black girls in important roles that are usually given to white characters. Okorafor cites Nigeria as "her muse" as she is heavily influenced by Nigerian folklore and its rich mythology and mysticism.

Gary K. Wolfe wrote of her work: "Okorafor's genius has been to find the iconic images and traditions of African culture, mostly Nigerian and often Igbo, and tweak them just enough to become a seamless part of her vocabulary of fantastika.""Gary K. Wolfe reviews Nnedi Okorafor", Locus Online, December 22, 2013.

Her work often looks at "weighty social issues: racial and gender inequality, political violence, the destruction of the environment, genocide and corruption" through "the framework of fantasy".

Okorafor shares that while the themes of her stories are often multi-layered they are always grounded in "stories of the women and girls around me and also within myself".

Okorafor asserts that her work and parental responsibility relate to each other because "writing and being a mother are a part of me, so they are mixed together and balance each other out."

As of 2019, she began strongly rejecting the term "afrofuturism" as a label for her work and coined the terms africanfuturism and africanjujuism instead. In October 2019, she published an essay titled "Defining Africanfuturism" that defines both terms in detail.

World Fantasy Award
Shortly after winning the World Fantasy Award in 2011, Okorafor published an essay "Lovecraft's racism & The World Fantasy Award statuette, with comments from China Miéville", in which she reflected upon her conflicting emotions on winning an award in the shape of a large silver bust of H. P. Lovecraft. She would later voice her support for Daniel José Older's 2014 petition to replace the Lovecraft bust with one of Octavia Butler. In the essay, she acknowledges both the literary legacy of Lovecraft and his continued influence in the contemporary world of science fiction:Do I want "The Howard" (the nickname for the World Fantasy Award statuette. Lovecraft's full name is "Howard Phillips Lovecraft") replaced with the head of some other great writer? Maybe. Maybe it's about that time. Maybe not. What I know I want is to face the history of this leg of literature rather than put it aside or bury it. If this is how some of the great minds of speculative fiction felt, then let's deal with that ... as opposed to never mention it or explain it away.

Awards
Novel and Novellas
 Award Year Category Work Result  Hugo Award2016Best Novella Binti2018Binti: Home 2019Binti: The Night Masquerade 2018Lodestar Award Akata Warrior  Nebula Award2011Best NovelWho Fears Death2016Best Novella Binti2008Andre Norton Award The Shadow Speaker 2012Akata Witch  World Fantasy Award2011Best NovelWho Fears Death  Locus Award2006Best First Novel Zahrah The Windseeker 2008Best Young Adult book The Shadow Speaker 2011Akata Witch 2019Akata Warrior 2011Best Science fiction Who Fears Death 2022Noor2014Best Collection Kabu Kabu 2016Best Novella Binti2018Binti: Home 2022Remote Control  Nommo Award2018Best NovelAkata Warrior 2016Best Novella Binti2018Binti: Home 2019Binti:The Night Masquerade  Arthur C. Clarke Award 2016Best Novel The Book of Phoenix  British Fantasy AwardBest Novella Binti2019Binti: The Night Masquerade  British SF Association Award2015Best Novel Lagoon 2016Best Short Story Binti  Otherwise Award 2008Honor List The Shadow Speaker 2011Who Fears Death 2015Lagoon John W. Campbell Memorial Award2016Best Novel The Book of Phoenix  Carl Brandon Award2006Kindred Award Zahrah The Windseeker Who Fears Death 2008 Parallax Award The Shadow Speaker 2006Zahrah The Windseeker  Golden Duck Award 2008Hal Clement Award The Shadow Speaker Kurd Laßwitz Award2018Best Foreign Novel The Book of Phoenix The Kitschies2015Red Tentacle Lagoon

Comics
 Award Year Category Work Result  Hugo Award2019Best Graphic Album Black Panther: Long Live The King 2021LaGuardia Nommo Award 2019Best Graphic Novel Shuri Black Panther:Long Live The King  Eisner Award2021Best Graphic Album - Reprint LaGuardia

Short fiction, memoir and Novelette
 Award Year Category Work Result Locus Award2011Best Novelette The Book of Phoenix 2022The Black Pages 2017Best Short Story Africanfuturist 4192019Mother of Invention2020Best nonfiction Broken Places and Outer Spaces:Finding Creativity in the Unexpected Best Short Story Binti: Sacred fireTheodore Sturgeon Memorial Award 2005Best Short Story The Magical Negro Ignotus Award 2019Foreign Short Story BintiWSFA Small Press Award 2008Best Short Story Spider the Artist 

Other Awards
 2005 – The Strange Horizons Reader's Choice Award for Stephen King's Super-Duper Magical Negroes
 2007–2008 – Macmillan Writers' Prize for Africa for Long Juju Man
 2008 – Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa for Zahrah the Windseeker
 2012 – Black Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature (Fiction) for Zahrah the Windseeker
 2015 – African Literary Person of the Year from Brittle Paper
 2016 – Children's Africana Book Award for Best Book for Young Readers for Chicken in the Kitchen
Mathical Honors for Binti

 Bibliography 
Children
 Long Juju Man (2009, Macmillan Africa)
 Iridessa and the Secret of the Never Mine (2012, Disney Books)
Chicken in the Kitchen (2020, Lantana publishing)

Young adult
 Zahrah the Windseeker (2005, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; paperback 2008, Graphia/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)—writing as Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
 The Shadow Speaker (2007, Hyperion/Disney)—writing as Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
 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, Viking/Penguin/PRH) (published as Sunny and the Mysteries of Osisi in Nigeria and the UK by Cassava Republic Press)
 Ikenga (2020, Viking/Penguin/PRH)
Akata Woman (2022, Viking/Penguin/PRH)

Adult
 Who Fears Death (2010, DAW/Penguin)
 "Hello, Moto" (2011, Tor.com)
 "Moom!" short story in "AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers" (2012, Storytime)
 Kabu Kabu (2013, Prime Books)
 "It's War" short story in "Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History" (2014, Crossed Genres)
 Lagoon (2014, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.) (2015, Saga Press/Simon & Schuster)
 The Book of Phoenix (2015, DAW/Penguin/PRH) (prequel of Who Fears Death)
 Binti (2015, Tor.com)
 Binti: Home (2017, Tor.com)
Binti: The Night Masquerade (2018, Tor.com)
Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected (TED Books) (2019, TED/Simon & Schuster)
 "Sunrise" short story in Africanfuturism: An Anthology (2020, Brittle Paper)
Remote Control (2021, Tor.com)
 Noor (2021, DAW/Penguin/PRH)
 She Who Knows trilogy (2024, DAW/Penguin/PRH) 

Comics
 Black Panther: Long Live the King (2017, Marvel)
 LaGuardia (2018, Dark Horse)
 Shuri (2018, Marvel)
 Wakanda Forever (2018, Marvel)
 Antar: the Black Knight (2018, IDW/Mirage Films)
 Shuri: Wakanda Forever (2020, Marvel)
 After The Rain (2021, Abrams ComicArts – Megascope)

 Selected filmography 
 Brave New Souls: Black Sci-Fi & Fantasy Writers of the 21st Century (2013) – Herself

 References 

 Linki ododa 

Nnedi Okorafor Home Page
Africanfuturism Defined by Nnedi Okorafor
Mikki Kendall, "A Nigerian Sorceress Makes Her Way", Publishers Weekly, April 12, 2010
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
"Sci-fi stories that imagine a future Africa". Nnedi Okorafor at TEDGlobal 2017

Gbúgbe:1974 births
Gbúgbe:Living people
Gbúgbe:21st-century American novelists
Gbúgbe:21st-century American women writers
Gbúgbe:American children's writers
Gbúgbe:American comics creators
Gbúgbe:American fantasy writers
Gbúgbe:American people of Igbo descent
Gbúgbe:American science fiction writers
Gbúgbe:American women novelists
Gbúgbe:American women children's writers
Gbúgbe:American writers of African descent
Gbúgbe:African-American comics creators
Gbúgbe:Black speculative fiction authors
Gbúgbe:Female comics writers
Gbúgbe:Homewood-Flossmoor High School alumni
Gbúgbe:Hugo Award-winning writers
Gbúgbe:Igbo novelists
Gbúgbe:Igbo women writers
Gbúgbe:Marvel Comics writers
Gbúgbe:Michigan State University alumni
Gbúgbe:Nebula Award winners
Gbúgbe:Nigerian children's writers
Gbúgbe:Nigerian feminists
Gbúgbe:Nigerian fantasy writers
Gbúgbe:Nigerian science fiction writers
Gbúgbe:Nigerian speculative fiction writers
Gbúgbe:Nigerian women children's writers
Gbúgbe:Nigerian women writers
Gbúgbe:Nommo Award winners
Gbúgbe:Novelists from Ohio
Gbúgbe:People from Olympia Fields, Illinois
Gbúgbe:University of Illinois Chicago alumni
Gbúgbe:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Gbúgbe:Women science fiction and fantasy writers
Gbúgbe:World Fantasy Award-winning writers
Gbúgbe:Writers from Cincinnati