Ukamaka Olisakwe
Ukamaka Olisakwe is a Nigerian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. In 2014 she was chosen as one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s most promising writers under the age of 40 by Africa 39. She was born in Kano, Nigeria, and in 2016, was a resident at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program.
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Francesca Ekwuyasi
Francesca Ekwuyasi is a writer and multidisciplinary artist from Lagos, Nigeria. Her work explores themes of faith, family, queerness, consumption, loneliness, and belonging.
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Ekwuyasi's debut novel, Butter Honey Pig Bread was longlisted for the 2020 Giller Prize and is a contender for CBC's 2021 Canada Reads competition.
Her writing has been published in Winter Tangerine Review, Brittle Paper, Transition Magazine, the Malahat Review, Visual Art News, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, GUTS magazine, the Puritan, forthcoming from Canadian Art, and elsewhere. Her story Ọrun is Heaven was longlisted for the 2019 Journey Prize.
Supported through the National Film Board's (NFB) Film Maker's Assistance Program (FAP) and the Fabienne Colas Foundation, her short do -
Ore Agbaje-Williams
ORE AGBAJE-WILLIAMS is a British-Nigerian writer and editor from North London who has written for gal—dem, Glamour UK and Wasafiri magazine. Her fiction writing has also been featured on Reflex Fiction. Her first novel, The Three of Us, was published by Jonathan Cape (UK), Putnam (US) and Penguin Random House Canada in May 2023.
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Foluso Agbaje
Foluso Agbaje is a British-Nigerian writer exploring how choices and connections shape who we are. After studying at the Faber Academy, she completed her debut novel, The Parlour Wife. Her background in Accounting, an MSc in Management and Human Resources from LSE, and work in Finance and HR offer perspectives that continue to inform her storytelling. Away from her desk, Foluso enjoys visiting bookshops and museums, watching period dramas, and seeking inspiration in new places.
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Aiwanose Odafen
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Aiwanose Odafen is an MFA fiction student at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. She has contributed to published non-fiction works and participated in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus Trust Writing Workshop. She was longlisted for the 2020 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize.
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As a high school student, she was a gold and silver medalist in the National Mathematics Olympiad Competition. She graduated top of her class with a first-class degree in Accounting and is certified with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, United Kingdom. She holds an MBA from the Said Business School, University of Oxford.
Prior to becoming a writer, Aiwanose worked as a consultant across industries, most recently, in the pu -
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia is a lawyer, academic, and writer. She holds a doctorate in law from Dalhousie University and works in the areas of health, gender, and violence against women and children. Cheluchi divides her time between Lagos and Halifax.
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Chika Unigwe
Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and now lives in Turnhout, Belgium, with her husband and four children. She writes in English and Dutch.
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In April 2014 she was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.
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Unigwe holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an MA from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. She also holds a PhD from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, having completed a thesis entitled "In the shadow of Ala. Igbo women writing as an act of righting" in 2004.
Chika Unigwe is een dichter en schrijfster, geboren in Nigeria en wonende in België (z -
Yejide Kilanko
A writer of fiction and poetry, Kilanko’s debut novel, Daughters Who Walk This Path, a Canadian national bestseller, was longlisted for the 2016 Nigeria Literature Prize.
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Her work includes a novella, Chasing Butterflies (2015), two children’s picture books, There Is An Elephant In My Wardrobe (2019), and Juba and The Fireball (2020). Her short fiction is in the anthology, New Orleans Review 2017: The African Literary Hustle. Her latest novel, A Good Name, is available now
Kilanko lives in Ontario, Canada, where she practices as a social worker. -
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
Adaobi Tricia Obinne Nwaubani (born in 1976) is a Nigerian novelist, humorist, essayist and journalist. Her debut novel, I Do Not Come to you by Chance, won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa), a Betty Trask First Book award,and was named by the Washington Post as one of the Best Books of 2009. Nwaubani is the first contemporary African writer on the global stage to have got an international book deal while still living in her home country.
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Nikki May
Born in Bristol and raised in Lagos, Nikki May is Anglo-Nigerian.
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Her critically acclaimed debut novel WAHALA won the Comedy Women In Print New Voice Prize, was longlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award and the Diverse Books Award, and is being turned into a major BBC TV drama series.
THIS MOTHERLESS LAND is her second novel. It was shortlisted for the 2025 Edward Stanford Fiction with a Sense of Place Prize, longlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature and is being adapted for TV.
Nikki lives in Dorset with her husband, two standard Schnauzers, and way too many books. She should be writing, but is probably reading.
You can follow Nikki on X: @NikkiOMay
Or Instagram: @nikkimaywriter -
Chigozie Obioma
Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria. His two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were shortlisted for The Booker Prize and have been translated into 30 languages. He has an LA Times book prize, the prestigious Internationalerpris, FT/Oppenheimer prize for fiction, an NAACP Image award and has been nominated for two dozen prizes for fiction. He was a judge of the Booker prize in 2021. He is a Distinguished writer in Residence at Wesleyan University, CT, the James E. Ryan Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the program director of the Oxbelly Writers retreat. His third novel, The Road to the Country, will be published in 2024.
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Buchi Emecheta
Buchi Emecheta OBE was a Nigerian novelist who has published over 20 books, including Second-Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979). Her themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education have won her considerable critical acclaim and honours, including an Order of the British Empire in 2005. Emecheta once described her stories as "stories of the world…[where]… women face the universal problems of poverty and oppression, and the longer they stay, no matter where they have come from originally, the more the problems become identical."
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From 1965 to 1969, Emecheta worked as a library officer for the British Museum in London. From 1969 to 1976 she -
Chika Unigwe
Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and now lives in Turnhout, Belgium, with her husband and four children. She writes in English and Dutch.
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In April 2014 she was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.
.
Unigwe holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an MA from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. She also holds a PhD from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, having completed a thesis entitled "In the shadow of Ala. Igbo women writing as an act of righting" in 2004.
Chika Unigwe is een dichter en schrijfster, geboren in Nigeria en wonende in België (z -
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
Adaobi Tricia Obinne Nwaubani (born in 1976) is a Nigerian novelist, humorist, essayist and journalist. Her debut novel, I Do Not Come to you by Chance, won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa), a Betty Trask First Book award,and was named by the Washington Post as one of the Best Books of 2009. Nwaubani is the first contemporary African writer on the global stage to have got an international book deal while still living in her home country.
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(from Wikipedia) -
Yejide Kilanko
A writer of fiction and poetry, Kilanko’s debut novel, Daughters Who Walk This Path, a Canadian national bestseller, was longlisted for the 2016 Nigeria Literature Prize.
Buy books on Amazon
Her work includes a novella, Chasing Butterflies (2015), two children’s picture books, There Is An Elephant In My Wardrobe (2019), and Juba and The Fireball (2020). Her short fiction is in the anthology, New Orleans Review 2017: The African Literary Hustle. Her latest novel, A Good Name, is available now
Kilanko lives in Ontario, Canada, where she practices as a social worker. -
Chigozie Obioma
Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria. His two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were shortlisted for The Booker Prize and have been translated into 30 languages. He has an LA Times book prize, the prestigious Internationalerpris, FT/Oppenheimer prize for fiction, an NAACP Image award and has been nominated for two dozen prizes for fiction. He was a judge of the Booker prize in 2021. He is a Distinguished writer in Residence at Wesleyan University, CT, the James E. Ryan Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the program director of the Oxbelly Writers retreat. His third novel, The Road to the Country, will be published in 2024.
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Wole Talabi
WOLE TALABI is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. He is the author of the novel SHIGIDI AND THE BRASS HEAD OF OBALUFON (DAW books/Gollancz, 2023). His short fiction has appeared in places like Asimov’s Science Fiction, Lightspeed Magazine, Tor.com and is collected in CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS (DAW books, 2024) and INCOMPLETE SOLUTIONS (Luna Press, 2019). He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Nommo awards, as well as the Caine Prize for African Writing. He has edited five anthologies including a 2-volume translation anthology in Bengali, AFRICANFUTURISM (Brittlepaper, 2020) and the forthcoming MOTHERSOUND: THE SAUÚTIVERSE ANTHOLOGY (Android Press, 2023). He likes scuba diving, elegant equations, and oddly shaped things
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Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Ayobami Adebayo's stories have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, and one was highly commended in the 2009 Commonwealth short story competition. She holds BA and MA degrees in Literature in English from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife. She also has an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia where she was awarded an international bursary for Creative Writing. Ayobami has been the recipient of fellowships and residencies from Ledig House, Hedgebrook, Threads, Ebedi Hills and Ox-Bow.
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STAY WITH ME- UK (Canongate, March 2017), Nigeria (Ouida Books, April 2017), US (Knopf, August 2017), KENYA (Kwani?, August 2017) is her debut novel. -
Oyinkan Braithwaite
OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE is a graduate of Creative Writing and Law from Kingston University. Following her degree, she worked as an assistant editor at Kachifo, a Nigerian publishing house, and has been freelancing as a writer and editor since. In 2014, she was shortlisted as a top-ten spoken-word artist in the Eko Poetry Slam, and in 2016 she was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She lives in Lagos, Nigeria.
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Adesuwa O'man Nwokedi
The Writer, who became an Engineer, who became an Investment Banker, who became a Fertility Spokesperson, who became…a Writer.
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That has been the journey of A. T. Nwokedi, aka The Fertile Chick. A self confessed hopeless romantic, when she is not creating new characters, she devotes her time to creating memories with her husband and their three children. -
Bisi Adjapon
Author of The Teller of Secrets. Top 10 Amazon Editors' Choice, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Pop Sugar, Ms. Magazine, ALA, American Booksellers Association, Globe and Mail, Mail and Guardian, BiblioLifestyle, Book Buzz. DAUGHTER IN EXILE will be released January 31, 2023
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Peace Adzo Medie
Peace Adzo Medie is a Ghanaian writer and senior lecturer in gender and international politics at the University of Bristol in England. Prior to that she was a research fellow at the University of Ghana. She has published several short stories, and her book Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. She is an award-winning scholar and has been awarded several fellowships. She holds a PhD in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in geography from the University of Ghana. She was born in Liberia.
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Fatima Bala
Fatima Bala is a lecturer, poet, and writer who lives in Canada with her family and a pet fish named Fishy. Her books have received starred reviews from The Los Angeles Tribune, London Post, and New York Weekly. She graduated from Algonquin College, Vancouver Island University, and Stanford, where she studied Tourism, Business Management, and International Women's Rights. She loves traveling, playing board games, and watching movies with unanticipated twists.
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Her Instagram account is @aka.fatima.bala -
Aiwanose Odafen
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Aiwanose Odafen is an MFA fiction student at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. She has contributed to published non-fiction works and participated in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus Trust Writing Workshop. She was longlisted for the 2020 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize.
Buy books on Amazon
As a high school student, she was a gold and silver medalist in the National Mathematics Olympiad Competition. She graduated top of her class with a first-class degree in Accounting and is certified with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, United Kingdom. She holds an MBA from the Said Business School, University of Oxford.
Prior to becoming a writer, Aiwanose worked as a consultant across industries, most recently, in the pu -
Foluso Agbaje
Foluso Agbaje is a British-Nigerian writer exploring how choices and connections shape who we are. After studying at the Faber Academy, she completed her debut novel, The Parlour Wife. Her background in Accounting, an MSc in Management and Human Resources from LSE, and work in Finance and HR offer perspectives that continue to inform her storytelling. Away from her desk, Foluso enjoys visiting bookshops and museums, watching period dramas, and seeking inspiration in new places.
Buy books on Amazon -
Buchi Emecheta
Buchi Emecheta OBE was a Nigerian novelist who has published over 20 books, including Second-Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979). Her themes of child slavery, motherhood, female independence and freedom through education have won her considerable critical acclaim and honours, including an Order of the British Empire in 2005. Emecheta once described her stories as "stories of the world…[where]… women face the universal problems of poverty and oppression, and the longer they stay, no matter where they have come from originally, the more the problems become identical."
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From 1965 to 1969, Emecheta worked as a library officer for the British Museum in London. From 1969 to 1976 she -
Adesuwa O'man Nwokedi
The Writer, who became an Engineer, who became an Investment Banker, who became a Fertility Spokesperson, who became…a Writer.
Buy books on Amazon
That has been the journey of A. T. Nwokedi, aka The Fertile Chick. A self confessed hopeless romantic, when she is not creating new characters, she devotes her time to creating memories with her husband and their three children. -
Abi Ishola-Ayodeji
Abi Ishola-Ayodeji is an Emmy award-winning producer, brand builder, and storyteller.
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Her debut novel, Patience is a Subtle Thief, was named one of BuzzFeed’s best books of May, 2022. -
Jendella Benson
Jendella Benson is a British-Nigerian writer and editor from Birmingham, now based in London. She is Head of Editorial at Black Ballad – the award-winning digital media platform and online community for black women in the UK and beyond. In her role, she has commissioned and edited hundreds of black women and non-binary journalists and writers from across the globe and worked with brands such as Dove, Comic Relief and Google.
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Jendella started her writing career as a columnist for Media Diversified, MTV UK, and Christian Today and has since written for The Guardian, The Sunday Times STYLE Magazine, The Telegraph and The Independent. She is the author of two novels – HOPE AND GLORY and ALL THAT WE’VE GOT – and her short story, Kindling, was pub -
Bisi Adjapon
Author of The Teller of Secrets. Top 10 Amazon Editors' Choice, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Pop Sugar, Ms. Magazine, ALA, American Booksellers Association, Globe and Mail, Mail and Guardian, BiblioLifestyle, Book Buzz. DAUGHTER IN EXILE will be released January 31, 2023
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Jude Dibia
Jude Dibia (born 5 January 1975 in Lagos, Nigeria)is a Nigerian novelist.
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Dibia studied at the University of Ibadan, and earned a B.A in Modern European Languages (German). He is the author of three well received novels: Walking with Shadows (BlackSands Books, 2005), Unbridled (2007), and Blackbird (2011). His novels have been described as daring and controversial by readers and critics in and out of Africa. Walking with Shadows is said to be the first Nigerian novel that has a gay man as its central character and that treats his experience with great insight, inviting a positive response to his situation. Unbridled, too, stirred some controversy on its publication; it is a story that tackles the emancipation of its female protagonist, who h -
Eghosa Imasuen
Nigerian novelist, medical doctor, Warri boy, father and husband. Latest novel is Fine Boys.
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Miracle Emeka-Nkwor
Miracle Emeka-Nkwor was born and raised in the Garden city, Port Harcourt. She is a graduate of Biochemistry from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and has always likened herself to an overflowing drum of creativity. When she isn’t sketching designs, drafting patterns and bent over a sewing machine, her nose is buried in the pages of a good book.
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What Happened to Janet Uzor is her debut novel.