Chibundu Onuzo


Imachibundu Oluwadara Onuzo is a Nigerian novelist. Her first novel, The Spider King's Daughter, won a Betty Trask Award, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize, and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Etisalat Prize for Literature.

Biography

Chibundu Onuzo was born in Nigeria in 1991, the youngest of four children of parents who are doctors, and grew up there in Lagos. She moved to England when she was 14 to study at an all-girls' school in Winchester, Hampshire, for her GCSEs, and at the age of 17 began writing her first novel, which was signed two years later by Faber and Faber and was published when she was 21. She was the youngest female writer ever taken on by the publisher. Reviewing her second book, Welcome to Lagos, Helon Habila wrote in The Guardian: "Onuzo’s portrayal of human character is often too optimistic, her view of politics and society too charitable; but her ability to bring her characters to life, including the city of Lagos, perhaps the best-painted character of all, is impressive."
Onuzo received a first-class bachelor's degree in history from King's College London, and went on to earn a master's degree in public policy from University College London. As of 2017, she is studying for a PhD at King's College London.
She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.

Awards and recognition

The Spider King's Daughter won a Betty Trask Award, and in 2012 was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize. In addition the novel was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and for the Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2013.
In April 2014 Onuzo was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.
In June 2018 Onuzo was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in its "40 Under 40" initiative.