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. 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. Emezi was also recognized as a 2018 National Book Foundation '5 Under 35' honoree. įreshwater received significant critical acclaim and was longlisted for numerous prestigious awards. 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. Career Įmezi's debut novel Freshwater tells the semi-autobiographical story of the protagonist, Ada, who is an ogbanje (an Igbo evil spirit). In 2014, they entered the MFA creative fiction writing program at Syracuse 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.

Emezi briefly started a short lived anonymous sex blog and a natural-hair blog which gave them little recognition.

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. Įmezi relocated to the Appalachian region of the United States when they were 16 years old to attend college. Emezi was a 'voracious' reader during childhood and they began writing short stories when they were five years old. Emezi started reading fantasy books and with their sister Yagazie used storytelling to escape the riots, dictatorship, and dangerous reality of their childhoods. Early life and education Īkwaeke Emezi was born in Umuahia in 1987 to an Igbo Nigerian father, and a mother who was the daughter of Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants living in Malaysia. In 2021, Time featured them as a Next Generation Leader. Their work has earned them several awards and nominations including the Otherwise Award and Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Emezi is a generalist who writes speculative fiction, romance, memoir and poetry for both young adults and adults with mostly LGBT themes. 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.

Pet akwaeke emezi