Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie grew up in Nsukka in the university house Chinua Achebe's family had once occupied, and left Nigeria at nineteen to study in the United States, where she has split her time ever since. Her debut, Purple Hibiscus (2003), announced a young writer working in Achebe's tradition; Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), built partly from her grandfathers' experiences of the Biafran war, gave that unspoken conflict its defining novel and won the Orange Prize.

Americanah (2013) followed a Nigerian woman's education in American racial categories and a lover's undocumented years in London, becoming a bestseller on the strength of its wit and bluntness. Her TED talks 'The Danger of a Single Story' and 'We Should All Be Feminists' (the latter sampled by Beyoncé) carried her voice well beyond fiction, and she continues to divide her time between Lagos and the United States.