Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on September 15, 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. Before her birth, Adichie's family lost nearly everything as a result of the Nigerian Civil War. She was raised in Nsukka, near the University of Nigeria. Her father, James Nwoye Adichie, was a professor of statistics and later became the deputy vice chancellor of the university. Her mother, Ifeoma Aidichie, was the university's first female registrar. Adichie is the fifth child in a family of six children. Her family is of Igbo descent.
Adichie enrolled at the University of Nigeria, where she studied medicine and pharmacy. After a year and a half, Adichie relocated to the United States to continue her studies. Although she did not originally study literature, Adichie nourished her longstanding interest in writing. She worked as an editor for her university's student-led publication, and she published both a collection of poems and a play before completing her undergraduate studies. She graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2001. She went on to receive master's degrees from both John Hopkins University and Yale University.
From a young age, Adichie was inspired by Chinua Achebe's literary representation of Nigerian people. In 2003, Adichie published her first novel, entitled Purple Hibiscus. It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. She was awarded the Orange Prize in 2007 for her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. In 2008, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. A collection of short stories, entitled The Thing Around Your Neck, was published in 2009.
Adichie's work centers around the themes of Nigerian culture, African identity in the United States, and feminism. In 2009, Adichie gave a TED Talk entitled "The Danger of a Single Story." The video clip later went viral on YouTube. In 2012, Adichie gave another TEDx talk called "We Should All be Feminists," which was later sampled in Beyonce's 2013 hit song, "***Flawless."
Adichie lives between the United States in Nigeria.
Americanah is the third novel of author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, published in 2013 after the success of her novels Purple Hibiscus (2003) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). Like her two prior novels, Americanah focuses on the lives of Nigerians,...
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in 1977 in Enugu Nigeria Sto a middle-class family and was raised with a strong emphasis on education and literature. Her experiences growing up in Nigeria and witnessing the socio-political issues faced by her...
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian author born in 1977, whose literary works include short stories, novels, speeches, and non-fiction. According to The New Literary Supplement (NLS), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the most well-known and...
Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) is one of the seminal works of literature written by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born in 1977). It chronicles the Nigerian Civil War of the late 1960s, depicting a politically charged climate. In...
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was widely acclaimed when it was published in 2003. Shortlisted for and awarded several prestigious prizes, Purple Hibiscus was praised for capturing a character and a nation on the cusp of...
The Thing Around Your Neck is a short story collection written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The book consists of twelve stories that focus on the lives of Nigerians living in both Africa and in the United States. Many of the stories in the...
