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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer and feminist. She is popular for writing novels, such as Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. She is credited with popularizing African literature among a new generation of readers, especially in the United States. In 2015, she was named in Time magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People.
N. K. Jemisin became the first writer to win the Hugo Best Novel award thrice consecutively and is best known for her Inheritance trilogy and her Broken Earth series. The African-American author is also a trained psychologist and has worked as a counsellor in several universities.
Claude McKay was a poet who played an influential role in the Harlem Renaissance. Remembered for his work If We Must Die, a poem written in response to mob attacks on African-American communities by white Americans, McKay was named the national poet of Jamaica in 1977. For his contribution to literature, he was posthumously honored with the Order of Jamaica.
Nella Larsen was an American novelist who also worked as a librarian and nurse. Among her literary work were her novels, Quicksand and Passing; the latter was adapted into a film of the same name in 2021. Larsen's work has gained renewed interest since the 20th century. Today, she is recognized as the most important novelist of the Harlem Renaissance.
Apparently, Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat, known for books such as Breath, Eyes, Memory, had begun writing to escape the bullying she faced because of her Haitian ways after she moved to the U.S. as a young girl. Although her parents wanted her to study medicine, she took up French literature.
Jonas Hassen Khemiri is a Swedish writer who has authored novels, plays, short stories, and essays. Khemiri's work has been translated into over 25 languages and he has received several prestigious awards, such as the August Prize. In 2017, his short story was published in the New Yorker, making him the first Swedish writer to have achieved this feat.
South African writer Lewis Nkosi had initially been a journalist for the Zulu-English paper Ilanga lase Natal. After receiving a scholarship to Harvard, he was exiled from his country by the Suppression of Communism Act. His critical essays appeared in Home and Exile, and his themes included politics and sexuality.
Richard Rive, regarded as one of the greatest short story writers of South Africa, mostly wrote on themes such as apartheid. His signature style includes a combination of realistic dialogue and imaginative scenarios. He had also had a PhD from Oxford and lectured at renowned institutes such as Harvard.
Best known for his banned memoir Blame Me on History, South African-born British author William Modisane explored themes such as apartheid laws. As a child, he had witnessed his father’s murder and his sister’s death due to malnutrition. A journalist and critic, he had begun his career with Drum magazine.
