Nnedi Okoroafor And The Book ‘Akata Witch’

• Nnedinma Okoroafor was born on April 8^th 1974 in Cincinatti, Ohio and is a Nigerian-American writer and professor.
• She specializes in fantasy, science fiction and speculative fiction.
• She is a 2001 graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop in Lansing, Michigan and holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
• Nnedi is a professor of Creative Writing currently at the Chicago State University and lives in Illinois.
• She received a 2001 Hurston-Wright literary award for her story “Amphibious Green”
• After her 2001 award, she published 2 books for young adults: The Shadow Speaker and Zahrah the Windseeker.
• Zahrah the Windseeker won the Wole Soyinka price for Literature in Africa and was shortlisted for the 2005 Carl Brandon Parallax and Kindred Awards and a finalist for the Garden State Teen Book Awards and the Golden Duck Award.
• “The Shadow Speaker”, one of her books won the Carl Brandon Parallax Award, a Booksense Pick for Winter 07/08, a  Tiptree Honor book, a finalist for Essence Magazine Literary Award, the Andre Norton Award and the Golden Duck Award and an NAACP Image Award nominee.
• Okoroafor’s children book, “Long Juju Man” won the Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa in 2007/2008.
• Her first adult novel, “Who fears Death” won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, was a 2011 Tiptree Honor Book and was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award.
• In 2011, she returned to young adult with “Akata Witch” which was a junior library guild selection and nominated for Andre Norton Award. It was also on the American’s library association’s Amelia Bloomer project honoring children’s book with feminist themes.
• Okoroafor’s short stories have been published into anthologies and magazines.
• 1n 2009, she donated her archive to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Collection of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the North Illinois University Library
• She has a daughter, who goes by the name Anyaugo.
• She grew up wanting to be an entomologist.
• She earned her BA in Rhetoric from the University of Illinois, MA in Journalism from Michigan State University.
• Her first full length play, Full Moon was produced by a theatre company in Chicago, 2005 and her screenplay was filmed in Nigeria, 2011 by Tchidi Chikere.
• Her greatest influences are Octavia Butler, Stephen King, Philip Pullman, Tove Jansson, Hayao Miyazaki, Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
• You can follow her on twitter @Nnedi or check her website www.nnedi.com

ABOUT THE BOOK Tweleve year old Nigerian American albino, Sunny discovers her magical powers and a secret society of magical Leopard people across the world. Sunny and her friends, Sasha, Orlu and Chichi, each with their respective traits have the task of finding Black Hat Otokoto and in this process of interaction, they get to know each other better. The book has a sequel which should be out sometime in 2015 and opens your eyes to the beauty of the paranormal world. Sounds like a Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione story at some point but there’s the uniqueness to Nnedi Okoroafor’s work.     Written By: Frank Ugo

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