Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedimma Nkemdili Listen^ⓘ"Nnedi" Okorafor (formerly Okorafor-Mbachu; born April 8, 1974) is a Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. She is best known for her Binti Series and her novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control. She has also written for comics and film.

Her writing is Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism, both terms she coined and is heavily influenced by her dual Nigerian and American heritage. She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Eisner Award and World Fantasy Award. She is considered to be among the third generation of Nigerian writers. Okorafor was inducted by the Museum of Pop Culture into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2024.

Nnedimma Nkemdili Okorafor was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1974 to Igbo Nigerian parents who travelled to America in 1969 to attend school but could not return to Nigeria due to the Nigerian Civil War. She holds both American and Nigerian citizenships.

Okorafor is the third child in a family of four children and she grew up in Chicago, Illinois, often travelling to Nigeria to spend holidays with her extended family. Her first name is Igbo for "mother is good".

During her years attending Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Illinois, Okorafor was a nationally known tennis and track star and excelled in math and the sciences. She wanted to be an entomologist.

She was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 13, a condition that worsened as she grew older. At age 19, she underwent spinal fusion surgery to straighten and fuse her spine; a rare complication led to Okorafor becoming paralyzed from the waist down.

Okorafor turned to writing small stories in the margins of a science-fiction book that she had. It was the first time she had ever written anything creatively. That summer, with intense physical therapy, Okorafor regained her ability to walk with a cane, but she was unable to continue her athletic career. At the suggestion of a friend, she took a creative writing class that spring semester and was writing her first novel by the semester's end.

She completed her college education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, before obtaining a master's degree in journalism from Michigan State University and a master's degree and PhD in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She is a 2001 graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop in Lansing, Michigan. Okorafor served as an associate professor at Chicago State University from 2008 to 2014 and at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 2014 to 2017. In 2021, Okorafor became a professor of practice at Arizona State University, where she became a member of the school’s Interplanetary Initiative. She currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her family.