Chimamanda clocked 44 on September 15, 2021 but she just released the pictures.
Born in 1977, Ngozi Adichie’s original and initial inspiration came from Chinua Achebe, after reading his
l Things Fall Apart, at the age of 10. Adichie was inspired by seeing her own life represented in the pages. She has also named Buchi Emecheta as a Nigerian literary precursor, on whose death Adichie said: “Buchi Emecheta. We are able to speak because you first spoke. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for your art. Nodu na ndokwa.”
Adichie published a collection of poems in 1997 (Decisions) and a play (For Love of Biafra) in 1998. Her short story “My Mother, the Crazy African”, dating from when Adichie was a college senior living in Connecticut, discusses the problems that arise when a person is facing two cultures that are complete opposites from each other. On one hand, there is a traditional Nigerian culture with clear gender roles, while in America there is more freedom in how genders act, and less restrictions on younger people. Ralindu, the protagonist, faces this challenge with her parents as she grew up in Philadelphia, while they grew up in Nigeria. Adichie dives deep into gender roles and traditions and what problems can occur because of this.
In 2002, she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writin for her short story “You in America”, and her story “That Harmattan Morning” was selected as a joint winner of the 2002 BBC World Service Short Story Awards.[48] In 2003, she won the David T. Wong International Short Story Prize 2002/2003 (PEN Center Award). Her stories were also published in Zoetrope: All-Story, and Topic Magazine.
Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), received wide critical acclaim; it was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction (2004)[52][53] and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (2005). Purple Hibiscus starts with an extended quote from Things Fall Apart.
Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), named after the flag of the short-lived nation of Biafra, is set before and during the Nigerian Civil War. Adichie has said of Buchi Emecheta’s Destination Biafra (1982): ” [It] was very important for my research when I was writing Half of a Yellow Sun.” Half of a Yellow Sun received the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Half of a Yellow Sun was adapted into a film of the same title directed by Biyi Bandele, starring BAFTA award-winner and Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor and BAFTA winner Thandiwe Newton, and was released in 2014.
Adichie’s third book, The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), is a collection of 12 stories that explore the relationships between men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.
In 2010 she was listed among the authors of The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40” Fiction Issue.[60] Adichie’s story “Ceiling” was included in the 2011 edition of The Best American Short Stories.
Her third novel Americanah (2013), an exploration of a young Nigerian encountering race in America was selected by The New York Times as one of “The 10 Best Books of 2013”.
In April 2014, she was named as one of 39 writers aged under 40 in the Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club project Africa39, celebrating Port Harcourt UNESCO World Book Capital 2014.
In a 2014 interview, Adichie said on feminism and writing: “I think of myself as a storyteller but I would not mind at all if someone were to think of me as a feminist writer… I’m very feminist in the way I look at the world, and that world view must somehow be part of my work.”
In 2015, she was co-curator of the PEN World Voices Festival.
In March 2017, Americanah was picked as the winner for the “One Book, One New York” program, part of a community reading initiative encouraging all city residents to read the same book.
Her next book, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, published in March 2017, had its origins in a letter Adichie wrote to a friend who had asked for advice about how to raise her daughter as a feminist.
In April 2017, it was announced that Adichie had been elected into the 237th class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the highest honours for intellectuals in the United States, as one of 228 new members to be inducted on 7 October 2017.
In 2020, Adichie published Zikora, a stand-alone short story about sexism and single motherhood.
In November 2020, Half of a Yellow Sun was voted by the public to be the best book to have won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in its 25-year history.
SOURCE: Wikipedia
