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Akwaeke Emezi

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Akwaeke Emezi
Emezi in 2018
Emezi in 2018
Born (1987-06-06) 6 June 1987 (age 37)
Umuahia, Abia, Nigeria[1]
OccupationWriter, video artist
NationalityNigerian
EducationNew York University (MPA)
Syracuse University (MFA)
GenreFantasy, romance
Years active2017–present
Notable worksFreshwater
Pet
The Death of Vivek Oji
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir
Website
www.akwaeke.com

Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian fiction writer and video artist, best known for their novels Freshwater, Pet, and their New York Times bestselling novel The Death of Vivek Oji.[2] Emezi is a generalist who writes speculative fiction, romance, memoir, and poetry for both young adults and adults with mostly LGBT themes. Their work has earned them several awards and nominations including the Otherwise Award and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2021, Time featured them as a Next Generation Leader.[3]

Early life and education

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Akwaeke Emezi was born in Umuahia, the capital city of Abia State, southeastern Nigeria in 1987 to an Igbo Nigerian father, and a mother who was the daughter of Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants living in Malaysia.[4] Emezi grew up in Aba.[5] Emezi started reading fantasy books and with their sister Yagazie[6] used storytelling to escape the riots, dictatorship, and dangerous reality of their childhoods.[7] Emezi was a "voracious" reader during childhood and they began writing short stories when they were five years old.[8][9]

Emezi relocated to the Appalachian region of the United States when they were 16 years old to attend college.[3][4] After college, they enrolled in a veterinary school and dropped out before receiving their MPA in international public policy and nonprofit management from New York University.[10] Emezi briefly started a short-lived anonymous sex blog and a natural-hair blog which gave them little recognition.[4] In 2014, they entered the MFA creative fiction writing program at Syracuse University where they started the draft of their debut novel Freshwater after which they attended Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop in Lagos State, southwestern Nigeria.[4]

Career

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Emezi's debut novel Freshwater tells the semi-autobiographical story of the protagonist, Ada, who is an ogbanje (an Igbo evil spirit). Emezi explores their Igbo heritage's spirituality and gender alongside those of Western construction and invites their audience to think critically about this spirit/body binary.[2][11]

Freshwater received significant critical acclaim[12][13][14] and was longlisted for numerous prestigious awards.[15][16][17][18] Emezi was also recognized as a 2018 National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree.[19]

In 2019, Freshwater was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction—the first time a non-binary transgender author has been nominated for the prize. Women's prize judge Professor Kate Williams said that the panel did not know Emezi was non-binary when the book was chosen, but she said Emezi was happy to be nominated.[20] Non-binary commentator Vic Parsons wrote that the nomination raised uncomfortable questions, asking: "would a non-binary author who was assigned male at birth have been longlisted? I highly doubt it."[21] After the nomination, it was announced that the Women's Prize Trust was working on new guidelines for transgender, non-binary, and genderfluid authors.[22] The Women's Prize later asked for Emezi's "sex as defined by law" when submitting The Death of Vivek Oji for inclusion, and Emezi chose to withdraw, calling the requirement transphobic and specifically exclusionary to trans women.[23]

Emezi's second novel and first young adult novel Pet, released on 10 September 2019, is about a transgender teenager named Jam living in a world where adults refuse to acknowledge the existence of monsters.[24] Bitter, the prequel to Pet, was released in February 2022.[25][26]

Emezi signed a two-book deal with Riverhead Books. The first, The Death of Vivek Oji, came out on 4 August 2020 and was a New York Times best seller.[27] The second is a memoir entitled Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir.[28]

Emezi's debut poetry collection Content Warning: Everything was published in April 2022.[29]

In April 2021, Deadline Hollywood announced that Amazon Studios won the right to adapt their debut romance novel You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty into a feature film.[30][31] It was purchased in a high six-figure deal which Deadline called the biggest book deal of the year so far. Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society will develop it alongside Elizabeth Raposo. Emezi will serve as the executive producer.[30]

Other works

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Emezi has written and directed short films, including Hey Celestial and Ududeagu.[32] Ududeagu won the Experimental Short Audience Award at the 2014 edition of the BlackStar Film Festival.[33]

In 2019, it was announced that Emezi will write and executive produce the TV series adaptation of their novel Freshwater for FX alongside Tamara P. Carter, to be produced by FX Productions with Kevin Wandell and Lindsey Donahue.[34][35]

In 2023, Emezi ventured into rap music, releasing their first single "Banye".[36][37] In March 2024, Emezi released their debut EP Stop Dying, You Were Very Expensive.[38]

Personal life

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Emezi identifies as non-binary transgender. They use they/them pronouns.[39][40] They experience multiplicity and consider themself an ogbanje.[40][41] They experienced their first personality split when they were 16, a week after moving to the United States.[4] They have written about their experience of undergoing gender confirmation surgery.[42]

Awards and nominations

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Dates Nominated Work Award Category Notes Ref.
2017 — Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice Global Arts Fund Grant Won [43][44]
"Who Is Like God" Commonwealth Short Story Prize Africa Won [45][1]
2018 Freshwater The Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize Nominated [15]
Center for Fiction First Novel Prize — Shortlisted [46]
2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlisted [47]
Aspen Words Literary Prize — Longlisted [48][49]
Nommo Award Novel Won [50][51]
Otherwise Award — Won [52]
PEN/Hemingway Award — Finalist [53][54]
Women's Prize for Fiction — Longlisted [20]
Young Lions Fiction Award — Finalist [55]
Pet National Book Award Young People's Literature Finalist [56]
2020 Walter Dean Myers Award Teen Won [57]
2021 The Death of Vivek Oji Dylan Thomas Prize — Shortlisted [58]
Nommo Award Novel Won [59]
2022 Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir Stonewall Award Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award Won [60]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • —— (2018). Freshwater: A Novel. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 9780802127358.
  • —— (2020). The Death of Vivek Oji: A Novel. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 9780525541608.
  • —— (2022). You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty: A Novel. New York: Atria Books. ISBN 9781982188702.
  • —— (2024). Little Rot: A Novel. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 9780525541639.

Young adult novels

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Nonfiction

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Poetry

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Literary Birthday – 6 June – Akwaeke Emezi". Writers Write. 5 June 2019. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b Mzezewa, Tariro (26 February 2018). "In This Debut Novel, a College Student Hears Voices". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 15 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  3. ^ a b Tre’vell Anderson. "Author Akwaeke Emezi Is Writing New Possibilities Into Being". Time. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e Binyam, Maya (19 May 2022). "'The Goal Is to Get As Bright As Possible'". Vulture. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  5. ^ "Books We Love: Inside The Bubble With Akwaeke Emezi | Death, Sex & Money". WNYC Studios. Archived from the original on 15 September 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
  6. ^ Leibovitz, Annie (11 January 2018). "5 Families Who Are Changing The World as We Know It". Vogue. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  7. ^ "39: Akwaeke Emeziwriter and video artist". Mythos. Archived from the original on 15 September 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  8. ^ "A Spirit Born into a Human Body: Talking with Akwaeke Emezi". The Rumpus.net. 21 February 2018. Archived from the original on 24 December 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  9. ^ "Akwaeke Emezi: 'I'd read everything – even the cereal box'". the Guardian. 20 October 2018. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  10. ^ Freshwater | Grove Atlantic. Archived from the original on 25 April 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  11. ^ "In 'Freshwater,' A College Student Learns To Live With Separate Selves". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  12. ^ Waldman, Katy (26 February 2018). "A Startling Début Novel Explores the Freedom of Being Multiple". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  13. ^ Adébáyò, Ayòbámi (15 November 2018). "Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi review – a remarkable debut". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  14. ^ Straight, Susan (16 February 2018). "A dazzling, devastating novel: 'Freshwater' by Akwaeke Emezi". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  15. ^ a b "The Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize". www.bklynlibrary.org. 20 March 2017. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  16. ^ "100 Notable Books of 2018". The New York Times. 19 November 2018. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  17. ^ Waldman, Katy (4 December 2018). "The Best Books of 2018". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  18. ^ "NPR's Book Concierge Our Guide To 2018's Great Reads". apps.npr.org. Archived from the original on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  19. ^ Schaub, Michael (24 September 2018). "National Book Foundation unveils this year's '5 Under 35' picks". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  20. ^ a b Cain, Sian (4 March 2019). "Non-binary trans author nominated for Women's prize for fiction". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  21. ^ "Opinion: Be careful before celebrating the recognition of Akwaeke Emezi". The Independent. 6 March 2019. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  22. ^ Wood, Heloise. "Women's Prize to formulate new policy around gender criteria". TheBookSeller.com. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  23. ^ Flood, Alison (5 October 2020). "Akwaeke Emezi shuns Women's prize over request for details of sex as defined 'by law'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  24. ^ "Pet by Akwaeke Emezi: 9780525647072 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  25. ^ IBEH, CHUKWUEBUKA (16 August 2021). "Akwaeke Emezi Announces New YA Fantasy Novel – Biter". Brittle paper. Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  26. ^ Berglind, Natalie (2022). "Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi (review)". Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 75 (6): 187. doi:10.1353/bcc.2022.0061. ISSN 1558-6766.
  27. ^ "The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi: 9780525541608 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Archived from the original on 2 January 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  28. ^ Anderson, Tre'vell (27 May 2021). "Akwaeke Emezi Is Writing New Possibilities Into Being". Time. Archived from the original on 6 June 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  29. ^ Vinson, Arriel (11 April 2022). "Akwaeke Emezi Explores New Terrain in 'Content Warning: Everything'". Shondaland. Archived from the original on 11 April 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  30. ^ a b Fleming, Mike Jr. (29 April 2021). "Amazon, Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society Land Akwaeke Emezi Novel 'You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty'". Deadline. Archived from the original on 12 April 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  31. ^ "Akwaeke Emezi's Novel 'You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty' To Be Adapted Into A Film By Amazon Studios And Michael B. Jordan". JARO Magazine. 11 May 2021. Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  32. ^ "Akwaeke Emezi". Black Women Directors. Archived from the original on 30 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  33. ^ Staff, Shadow and Act. "2014 BlackStar Film Festival Award Winners – 'Evolution of a Criminal,' 'Dreams Are Colder Than Death'". Shadow and Act. Archived from the original on 30 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  34. ^ Otterson, Joe (22 May 2019). "FX to Develop Series Adaptation of Akwaeke Emezi's 'Freshwater' With Tamara P. Carter (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on 18 June 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  35. ^ Simon, Jordan. "'Freshwater': FX Developing Series Adaptation Based On Akwaeke Emezi's Acclaimed Debut Novel". Shadow and Act. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  36. ^ "Author Akwaeke Emezi Makes Their Music Debut". W Magazine. 25 August 2023. Archived from the original on 3 September 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  37. ^ "Author Turned Rapper: After Publishing 7 Books, Akwaeke Emezi Releases Rap Single". brittlepaper.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  38. ^ "Listen to Akwaeke Emezi's Stunning Debut EP Now!". brittlepaper.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2024. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
  39. ^ Bausells, Marta (21 February 2018). "The Nonbinary Author Centering African Narratives Erased by Colonialism". Vice. Archived from the original on 28 June 2023.
  40. ^ a b Emezi, Akwaeke (19 January 2018). "Transition". The Cut. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  41. ^ Whitehouse, Matthew (24 December 2018). "akwaeke emezi: the 'freshwater' author standing on the edge and claiming it as central". i-D. Archived from the original on 19 August 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  42. ^ Emezi, Akwaeke (19 January 2018). "Transition". The Cut. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  43. ^ "Akwaeke Emezi Bio: Akwaeke Emezi is an Igbo/Tamil... – globalartsfund". Global Arts Fund 2017. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  44. ^ "Global Arts Fund Archives – Page 2 of 4". Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  45. ^ "Who Is Like God". Granta. 13 June 2017. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  46. ^ "The Center for Fiction". www.centerforfiction.org. Archived from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  47. ^ "Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlist | Awards & Grants". www.ala.org. Archived from the original on 19 June 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  48. ^ "AKWAEKE EMEZI". Aspen Words. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  49. ^ "7 Tips on Writing Fiction from Aspen Words Literary Prize Nominees". The Aspen Institute. 10 January 2019. Archived from the original on 4 December 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  50. ^ "Announcing the 2019 Nommo Award Winners". 25 October 2019. Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  51. ^ "Nommo 2019: Novel Nominations – African Speculative Fiction Society". www.africansfs.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  52. ^ Lothian, Alexis (11 April 2020). "Akwaeke Emezi wins 2019 Otherwise Award! Honor List Announced « Otherwise Award". Otherwise Award. Archived from the original on 16 June 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  53. ^ "2019 PEN/Hemingway Award Finalists Announced | The Hemingway Society". www.hemingwaysociety.org. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  54. ^ "Akwaeke Emezi". Women's Prize for Fiction. Archived from the original on 20 November 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  55. ^ "Young Lions Fiction Award Finalists". locusmag.com. 21 May 2019. Archived from the original on 2 June 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  56. ^ "The 2019 National Book Awards Finalists Announced". National Book Foundation. 7 October 2019. Archived from the original on 9 October 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  57. ^ "2020 Walter Awards". We Need Diverse Books. 21 January 2020. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  58. ^ "Shortlist for Dylan Thomas Prize Is Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  59. ^ Tor.com (25 October 2019). "Announcing the 2019 Nommo Award Winners". Reactor. Retrieved 26 September 2024.
  60. ^ "Stonewall Book Awards List | Rainbow Roundtable". www.ala.org. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
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