By Sandy Fougeres, LAF Intern and PTW Student
“So much of my writing is about trying to remember what I am and finding ways to reassign myself language. All my work is the same work. It’s all spiritual self-portraiture.” -Akwaeke Emezi, Vulture Interview
Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is a Nigerian writer and multidisciplinary artist. They are best known for their multi-award winning novels, Freshwater (2018), Pet (2019), and their New York Times best seller, The Death of Vivek Oji (2020). An honoree of the National Book Foundation “5 under 35,” Emezi draws inspiration from their own life experiences, spirituality, and Nigerian background; stepping outside of categorical boundaries to write about characters who are Black, LGBTQIA+, and living in the diaspora. They continue to find literary success as their romance novel, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty (2022) and their autobiographical debut novel, Freshwater, are in the process of being adapted for television by Amazon and FX respectively. Emezi’s writing and art exhibit true brilliance as they express their creativity through fiction, romance, memoir, and poetry with LGBTQIA+ themes for both young adult and adult audiences. Here is how Bogi Takács, a juror for The Otherwise Award, describes Freshwater:
Sometimes a work comes that says something you carry in yourself as intimately as flesh and bones, but you’ve never seen reflected in fiction; speculative or otherwise. For me, Freshwater by Igbo and Tamil author Akwaeke Emezi was one of those works, straining against the constraints of Western literary genres and bursting them in a luminous display of strength…. Freshwater gives me hope, room to grow into myself as a reader, and a sense of relation that emerges across continents and traditions; with all our commonalities and differences.
Click here for more on Akwaeke Emezi’s 2019 Otherwise Award for Freshwater
Further Readings & Resources
- For a complete overview of Akwaeke Emezi’s work, visit their website.
- Examples of their video art are also available on their website, including UDUDEAGU (2014) and HEY CELESTIAL (2014)
- Akwaeke Emezi interviewed on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah
- A review of Freshwater in the New York Times
- A video of Akwaeke Emezi reading from their novel, Bitter
SAVE THE DATE FOR THE 2023 LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL FEATURING AKWAEKE EMEZI
April 27, 2023
4 to 6 pm
The New Academic Complex Theater at City Tech
285 Jay Street
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Click Here to Register
