Taiye Selasi
The author and photographer of Ghanaian and Nigerian descent was born in London, England and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. An advocate for children’s right’s, she sits on the board for United Way. Selasi earned her bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Yale University and her masters of philosophy in International Studies from Nuffield College, Oxford.
Selasi authored the essays Bye-Bye, Babar (Or: What is an Afropolitan?) in 2005 and Afropolitan – No Less and No More. She’s written short stories Brunhilda in Love (2015) and The Sex Lives of African Girls (2011) to name a few. Selasi is widely known for her novel Ghana Must Go – based on the infamous expulsion of Ghanaians from Nigeria in 1983.
In 2013 Selasi was selected as one of Granta′s 20 Best Young British Writers. In 2014 she was selected as Hay Festival’s Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers under the age of 40 – with the potential to influence upward shifts in African literature. In 2015 Selasi led the annual Iceland Writers Retreat in Reykjavik, Iceland as the featured author.
