Nnedi Okorafor Biography

Nnedi Okorafor was born April 8, 1974, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents, who are Nigerian Igbo, came to the United States before Okorafor and her two sisters were born. Okorafor’s family moved to Chicago’s suburbs when she was a child. In Flossmoor, they experienced racism, vandalism to their property, and harassment. By the time Okorafor was in high school, the bullying and racism had become overwhelming. She quit the tennis team despite being a star player and then returned to the game in college. But Okorafor had been diagnosed with scoliosis years earlier, and after undergoing surgery, she was left paralyzed from the waist down.

During this difficult period, Okorafor began writing. Eventually, physical therapy helped Okorafor learn to walk again. She went on to complete a master of arts degree in journalism at Michigan State University and earn a doctorate in English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She sold her first novel, Zahrah the Windseeker (2005), before completing her doctorate. After finishing her degree, Okorafor took a job teaching creative writing at the University of Buffalo.

Since the publication of Zahrah the Windseeker, Okorafor has published a range of novels, novellas and comic books. Her novella Binti (2015) won a Nebula Award in 2015 and a Hugo Award the following year. Okorafor teamed up with Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu (1980–) in 2019 to adapt Octavia Butler’s (1947–2006) novel Wild Seed (1980) for the screen. While she resists most labels, Okorafor calls herself an “Africanfuturist” and an “Africanjujuist.” She says the first term is a subcategory of science fiction while the second is another subcategory that “acknowledges the seamless blend” of African spiritualities and imagination. Okorafor is one of the major voices reimagining science fiction and fantasy within the African diaspora—the global community of people of African descent living outside Africa.