Chimamanda Adichie Biography: Early Life, Projects, Awards, Family.

by Sunday Aienoben | Apr 15, 2019 | Authorpedia, Updates & News

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  is a Nigerian novelist, writer of short stories, and nonfiction, she was born in the city of Enugu, which located in the eastern part Nigeria to an Igbo father,  Mr James Nwoye Adichie whom was a professor of statistics at the prestigious University of Nigeria, and mother, Mrs Grace Ifeoma-Adichie whom happens to work in the University of Nigeria as the registrar in the institution and she was the first female to have ever held that position in the university at that time.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in the town called Nsukka in Enugu state as the fifth child of six children. Before leaving the University Of Nigeria after spending one and the half year, she studied medicine and pharmacy, perhaps she was not coping or she had other passions because at this period she was the editor of the magazine that was run by the university’s Catholic medical students at that time called “The Compass.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie decided to leave Nigeria for the United States at the tender age of 19 to study Communications & Political Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA. She then transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University. In the year 2001, she graduated bagging a B.Sc with the distinction of “summa cum laude” from Eastern Connecticut State University. She went on to get an M.Sc in Creative Writing at Johns Hopkins University. Also, she received a Master of Arts degree in African studies from Yale University in 2008.

In an interview published in the Financial Times in July 2016, Adichie revealed that she had a baby daughter. In a profile of Adichie, published in The New Yorker in June 2018, Larissa MacFarquhar wrote, “the man she ended up marrying, in 2009, was almost comically suitable: a Nigerian doctor who practised in America, named Dr Ivara Esege, whose father was a doctor and a friend of her parents.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie published her first novel, which she titled “Purple Hibiscus” in the year 2003 which received critical acclaim and bagged the book a shortlisting for the Orange Prize for Fiction in the following year, 2004. In the subsequent year, “Purple Hibiscus” went on to win the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book.

Aside from been popular as an extremely intelligent writer with a great sense of humour, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is also very well known for being a strong advocate for gender equality aka Feminism. Although a lot of misconception has arisen as to what feminism truly means, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie makes everybody understands that it is just the fight to ensure women are given the right to express their feelings and also partake in the nation-building like their male counterpart. Her speech on this topic at an event was featured on a track by Beyoncé titled “Flawless.” which went on to be nominated for a Grammy Awards.

Read also Ben Okri Biography: Early Life, Works/Projects, Awards, Family.

Novels

Purple Hibiscus (2003)
Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)
The Thing Around Your Neck (2009)
Americanah (2013)

Poetry, Essays & Short Story Collections

Checking out (2013)
We Should All Be Feminists (2014)
Apollo (2015)
The Arrangements: A Work of Fiction (2016)
Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017)

Films/Music

“Flawless” (Beyoncé featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

Awards

2002 BBCmeasuring Competition – That Harmattan Morning
2002/2003 David T. Wong International Short Story Prize (PEN American Center Award) – Half of a Yellow Sun
2003 O. Henry Prize – The American Embassy
2004 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award: Best Debut Fiction Category – Purple Hibiscus
2005 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize: Best First Book (Africa) – Purple Hibiscus
2005 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize: Best First Book (overall) – Purple Hibiscus
2007 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award: Fiction category – Half of a Yellow Sun
2007 PEN Beyond Margins Award – Half of a Yellow Sun
2007 Orange Broadband Prize: Fiction category – Half of a Yellow Sun
2008 Reader’s Digest Author of the Year Award
2008 Future Award, Nigeria: Young Person of the Year category
2008 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant
2009 International Nonino Prize
2013 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize: Fiction category – Americanah
2013 National Book Critics Circle Award: Fiction category – Americanah
2018 PEN Pinter Prize

Recognitions

2010 Listed among The New Yorker′s “20 Under 40”
2013 Listed among The New York Times′ “Ten Best Books of 2013”, for Americanah
2013 Listed among BBC’s “Top Ten Books of 2013”, for Americanah
2013 Foreign Policy magazine “Top Global Thinkers of 2013”
2013 Listed among the New African′s “100 Most Influential Africans 2013”
2014 Listed among Africa39 project of 39 writers aged under 40
2015 Listed among Time Magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People”
2015 Commencement Speaker at Wellesley College
2018 Class Day Speaker for Harvard University
2019 Named as Class Day Speaker for Yale University.

Research Support: Wikipedia

Sunday Aienoben

Founder & Chief Editor nigerialiteraryhub.com.ng