Uzodinma Iweala (born November 5, 1982) is a Nigerian-American author and medical doctor. His
debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...
, ''
Beasts of No Nation'', is a formation of his thesis work (in creative writing) at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
. It depicts a child soldier in an unnamed African country. The book, published in 2005 and adapted as
an award-winning film in 2015, was mentioned by ''
Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'', ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', and ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
.'' In 2012, he released the non-fiction book ''Our Kind of People'', about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria. He later released a novel titled ''
Speak No Evil'', published in 2018, which highlights the life of a gay Nigerian-American boy named Niru.
Iweala is the former CEO of
The Africa Center in Harlem, New York. He is currently a fellow at the Katë Hamburger Center for Apocalyptic and Post Apocalyptic Studies at the University of Heidelberg and an Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and advisor at UNSECO.
Family and education
Born and raised in the U.S. with American nationality, Iweala is the son of Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (; born 13 June 1954) is a Nigerian economist, who has been serving as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization since March 2021. She is the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization as d ...
. He attended
St. Albans School in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, and later
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
, from which he graduated with an A.B., ''
magna cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'', in English and American Literature and Language, in 2004.
His roommate at Harvard was the future mayor of
South Bend, Indiana
South Bend is a city in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It lies along the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. It is the List of cities in ...
and
U.S. transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg
Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg ( ; born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former naval officer who served as the 19th United States Secretary of Transportation, United States secretary of transportation from 2021 to 2025. A me ...
. While at Harvard, Iweala earned the
Hoopes Prize and Dorothy Hicks Lee Prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis, 2004; Eager Prize for Best Undergraduate Short Story, 2003; and the Horman Prize for Excellence in Creative Writing, 2003.
He graduated from
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (officially known as Columbia University Roy and Diana Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) is the medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irvin ...
in 2011 and was a fellow at the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.
Novels
''Beasts of No Nation'' (2005)
''Speak No Evil'' (2018)
In his second novel, Iweala explores the intersections of
race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality and the diaspora through the story of Niru, a Nigerian-American high-school senior living in a middle-class
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
of Washington, D.C., who comes out as gay to his white straight friend Meredith. The first two thirds of the book are narrated by Niru while the last third is narrated by Meredith. Niru must learn how to negotiate his many identities: being a Black man in America, being the child of Nigerian immigrants, coming from a middle-class background, as well as being gay. Niru is forced to confront the many ways in which he is privileged, as well as disenfranchised. Iweala also interweaves themes of religion, cultural dislocation, mental health, police brutality, and more, all of which further add to and further complicate Niru's life and identities.
Literary awards
In 2006, Iweala won the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...
's
Young Lions Fiction Award
The Young Lions Fiction Award is an annual US literary prize of $10,000, awarded to a writer who is 35 years old or younger for a novel or collection of short stories. The award was established in 2001 by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick ...
. In 2007, he was named as one of ''
Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...
'' magazine's
20 best young American novelists.
References
External links
Audio: Uzodinma Iweala reading from ''Beasts of No Nation''at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2008.
Audio: Iweala reads from work-in-progress about people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria From Key West Literary Seminar, 2008.
Radio interviewon ''Bookworm''.
* Andrea Sachs
''Time'' magazine, November 29, 2005.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iweala, Uzodinma
Igbo writers
Nigerian male novelists
1982 births
Living people
Harvard College alumni
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners
St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) alumni
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni
American people of Igbo descent
African-American novelists
American male novelists
21st-century American novelists
21st-century Nigerian novelists
21st-century American male writers
21st-century African-American writers
20th-century African-American writers
African-American male writers
Vanity Fair (magazine) people