The rise to fame of Nnedi Okorafor is simply an example of how much you can achieve when you free your imagination. Nnedi Okorafor was born in the USA to two Nigerian immigrant parents, and through hard work and sheer determination, has risen to become a professor at Chicago state Univertity.

Though she’s spent most of her life in the USA, Nigeria is uppermost on her mind, and this is evident in her work.

Having a strong interest in insects and nature, Nnedi had initially wanted to be an entomologist. And now, as a writer, this passion shows itself in her work, which are usually full of remarkably vivid lifeforms and flora.

Her first novel, Zahrah the Windseeker, was published in Nigeria in 2008 by Kachifo, and takes place in a highly technological world spawned from Nigerian myths and culture. Zahrah the Windseeker won the Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s Prize for Literature. It was also nominated for the Parallax Award and Kindred Award, was a finalist for the Golden Duck and Garden State Teen Choice awards and was nominated for a Locus Award.

Her next book too, The Shadow Speaker, was set in the countries of Nigeria and Niger. This one won the Parallax award, and an NAACP Image award nomination. It was also a Booksense Pick for Winter 2007/08 and a finalist for the Essence Magazine Literary Award as well as the Andre Norton Award.

In 2007, Nnedi Okorafor won the Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa. Her winning children’s story titled Long Juju Man, about a girl’s encounters with a crafty ghost, was published by Macmillan Education in 2009.

This year’s mega-buzz on Nnedi, is her fantastic young adult novel, recently published by DAW books “Who Fears Death”, a dark, magical realist blend of African literature and science fiction. Already, the book has earned a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly.

Next year, she’ll be releasing “Akata Witch” a story about a teenage Nigerian girl who comes to finds out that she belongs to a secret society of magic.

In just a few years, Nnedi Okorafor has written quite a lot. These include:

“How Inyang Got Her Wings” (Gallery Seven Books) 2008, “The Chaos Magician’s Mega Chemistry Set” (Space and Time Publishing) 2007, “The Red Queen” (Stanford University) 2007, “When Scarabs Multiply”, “So Long Been Dreaming” (Arsenal Pulp Press) 2004, “Of Course People Can Fly” (Ohio State University Press) 2008, and many more.

Get daily updates on Nnedi Okorafor and hundreds of other Nigerian superstars across the world on Nigeria news magazine, Star1960 .

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