PR TIMES AFRICA PRTimesAfrica (March 2016) | Page 17

She attended UNN’s school, an exceptional stu-
dent with several prizes to show. As is socially
expected of all excellent students, she went on
to study Medicine & Pharmacy at UNN(where
she edited “The Compass” a magazine by the
University’s Catholic Medical students)for a year
and a half before leaving for the United States to
study Communications at the university of Drexel
in Philadelphia, on a scholarship. She later trans-
ferred to Connecticut to complete a degree in
Communication and Political Science at Eastern
Connecticut State University, graduating Summa
Cum Laude in 2001. Adichie, in 2003, bagged a
master’s degree in Creative Writing from Johns
Hopkins University and was a Hodder fellow at
Princeton University during the 2005-2006 aca-
demic year, earning an MA in African Studies from
Yale University in 2008. In 2008 she was award-
ed a MacArthur Fellowship. She has also been
awarded a 2011–12 fellowship by the Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
Chimamanda published a collection of poems in
1997 (Decisions) and a play (For Love of Biafra)
in 1998. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was re-
leased in 2003 to wide critical acclaim and glob-
al acceptance. Her second, Half of a Yellow Sun
(named after the flag of the secessionist nation of
Biafra) was set before and during the Nigerian civil
war. Half of a Yellow Sun has been adapted into
a film of the same title directed by Biyi Bandele,
starring BAFTA winner and Academy Award nom-
inee Chiwetel Ejiofor and BAFTA award-winner
Thandie Newton, and was released in 2014. Her
third book, The Thing Around Your Neck, a collec-
tion of short stories, was published in 2009. Her
third novel, Americanah was published in 2013.
Parts of her 2012 TEDx talk were used as lyrics
for Beyonce’s song “Flawless” which earned her a
status of featuring artiste.
She has received several awards and nominations
over the course of her flourishing career. She was
nominated for the 2002 for her Caine Prize for
her short story, You in America. That Harmattan
Morning, her short story, was a joint winner of the
BBC short story award in 2003. In 2004, Purple
Hibiscus was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for
Fiction and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize
for Best First Book in 2005. Half of a Yellow Sun
bagged the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and the
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The New York Times
selected Americanah as one of The 10 Best Books
of 2013.
Chimamanda has over the years used her con-
siderable leverage & work to advocate for social
causes, especially the gender inequality issue,
stating “gender as it functions today is a grave in-
justice. We should all be angry. Anger has a long
history of bringing about positive change, but in
addition to being angry, I’m also hopeful because
I believe deeply in the ability of human beings to
make and remake themselves for the better.” She
writes and speaks regularly sharing her thoughts
on social issues, demanding that her beloved Af-
rica be treated with a lot more respect in interna-
tional community. She also runs creative writing
workshops for younger writers, every summer.
Though having never made it a priority in her life,
she is happily married to Dr. Ivara Esege, a doctor
based in Maryland, United States and she doesn’t
like to be addressed as MRS. While many see
her as a heroine for her works, she still sees the
struggling women as her heroines telling Vogue
Magazine in an interv iew “the real heroes are the
nameless women in the market, who are holding
their families together. They are traders and their
husbands are out drinking somewhere. I am full of
admiration for them.”
RECOGNITIONS
2010: Listed among
The New Yorker′s
“20 Under 40”
2013: Listed among
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”
17 | PRTIMES AFRICA MARCH 2016
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”