Chimamanda Ngozi

Perhaps among the few non-actress or actors on the list, Chimamanda Ngozi is a Nigerian writer who has written literary works ranging from short stories to nonfiction and then novels.  The Times Literary Supplement described Ngozi as the most prominent among the lineup of critically-acclaimed young Anglophone authors who successfully attracted a new generation of readers to African literature.

She lives in the United States, her second home, but the writer hails from the Enugu State of Nigeria. The family was well-off and sent Ngozi to college where she studied medicine and pharmacy— but her heart was not into it, so she asked herself what she really wanted.   When the feminist writer moved to the US to further her studies in writing, she gained firsthand experience of race prejudice, but she used that to influence others to learn more about Africa instead. She now divides her time between Nigeria and the US, conducting in-person and even online classes on writing.