Akwaeke Emezi

Texas Isaiah

Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, which was a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the PEN/Jean Stein Award; Pet, a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, a Walter Honor Book, and a Stonewall Honor Book; Freshwater, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize; and most recently, Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir. Their debut poetry collection, Content Warning: Everything, their debut romance novel, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, and their next young adult novel, Bitter, are forthcoming in 2022. Selected as a 5 Under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation, they are based in liminal spaces.

www.akwaeke.com

Books by this author

Awards and Honors

National Book Foundation ā€œ5 Under 35ā€ Honoree (2018) 

The Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree Award)

Ilube Nommo Award

Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa

Stonewall Book Award

Walter Award

Otherwise Award

Finalist, National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

Finalist, PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel

Finalist, Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Finalist, NYPL Young Lions Award

Finalist, Lambda Literary Award (Transgender Fiction)

Finalist, Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction

Finalist, Lambda Literary Award (LGBTQ Young Adult)

Longlist, International Dublin Literary Award

Longlist, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence

Longlist, Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize

Longlist, Wellcome Prize

Longlist, Aspen Words Literary Prize

Longlist, Women’s Prize for Fiction

Longlist, VCU Cabell First Novelist Award

Astraea Foundation Global Arts Fund

Sozopol Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction

Miles Morland Writing Scholarship 

Finalist, L.A. Times Book Prize