FCC Research Guides: Campus Book Discussion (2017): Purple Hibiscus: About the Author

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the leading African writer of her generation.

Ms. Adichie’s work is read around the world, and has been translated into over thirty languages. Her first novel Purple Hibiscus won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

Ms. Adichie's 2009 TED Talk, The Danger of A Single Story, is now one of the top ten most-viewed TED Talks of all time, with over five millions views. Her 2012 TED talk, We Should All Be Feminists, has a started a worldwide conversation about feminism, especially after it inspired a song by Beyoncé. It was published as a book in 2014.

About the Author
A fuller author's bio is available on the Maryland Humanities Council's 2017 One Maryland One Book webpage.

TED Talks

Interviews

Irritation And Space: A Nigerian Writer In America
2009 interview on NPR's Weekend All Things Considered.

In Popular Culture

No7 Match Made Ad with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The United Kingdom’s No. 7 cosmetics company features Chimamanda Adichie in an advertising campaign that intertwines Adichie’s feminism with her perception of femininity.
Ready To Speak Up: Perceptions Of Make-Up
Here, Adichie comments on cultural perceptions that cosmetics are at odds with feminism, and she clarifies how her affinity for makeup influences her self concept as a feminist.
Chimamanda Adichie: Beauty Does Not Solve Problems
In this video, Adichie offers her own definition of beauty, which is at times at odds with larger cultural perceptions of beauty.

Fiction Books

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Call Number: PR9387.9 A34354 A44 2014
ISBN: 9780307455925
Publication Date: 2014-03-04
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion--for each other and for their homeland.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
ISBN: 9780008205249
1960s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war. Three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university lecturer. Olanna has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. The third is Richard, a shy Englishman in thrall to Olanna's enigmatic twin sister. Amid the shocking horror of the war, their loyalties are severely tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways that none of them imagined.
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
ISBN: 9780007306213
A collection of short stories from the Orange Prize-winning author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. The stories in this brilliant collection straddle the cultures of Nigeria and the West. Her characters battle with the responsibilities of modern life, a world in which identity is too often compromised.

Other Writings

Hiding From Our Past
In this essay, Adichie examines the psychological and cultural impact of the Biafran war on her family and country.
African "Authenticity" and the Biafran Experience
Adichie shares her formative experiences as a writer, including the influences of fellow Nigerians Christopher Okigbo and Chinua Achebe.