Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works span across novels, short stories, and non-fiction. Born on September 15, 1977, in Enugu, Nigeria, she was raised in Nsukka, where her parents worked at the University of Nigeria. Her father, James Nwoye Adichie, was a professor of statistics, while her mother, Grace Ifeoma, was the first female registrar at the same university.
Adichie completed her secondary education at the University of Nigeria Secondary School in Nsukka. She left Nigeria at the age of 19 to study communication and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later, she transferred to Eastern Connecticut State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree. Adichie then pursued a master's degree in Creative Writing at Johns Hopkins University. She also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie first gained international recognition with her novel Purple Hibiscus (2003), which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Her subsequent novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), set during the Nigerian-Biafran War, received widespread acclaim, winning the Orange Prize for Fiction (now known as the Women's Prize for Fiction) among other awards.
Her third novel, Americanah (2013), which deals with themes of race, identity, and immigration, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.
Adichie has also published a collection of short stories titled The Thing Around Your Neck (2009) and several non-fiction works including We Should All Be Feminists, adapted from her 2012 TEDx talk, which has become a widely read manifesto on feminism.
Her writing often explores themes of identity, culture, feminism, and the effects of political and social upheaval in Nigeria and the African Diaspora. Adichie's narrative style often includes multiple perspectives, giving voice to various characters and highlighting the complexity of human experiences.