Tomi Adeyemi (born August 1, 1993) is a
Nigerian-American
Nigerian Americans ( ig, Ṇ́dị́ Naìjíríyà n'Emerịkà;
ha, Yan Najeriyar asalin Amurka;
yo, Àwọn ọmọ Nàìjíríà Amẹ́ríkà) are an ethnic group of Americans who are of Nigerian ancestry. The number of Nigerian immigran ...
novelist and creative writing coach. She is known for her novel ''
Children of Blood and Bone
''Children of Blood and Bone'' is a 2018 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian-American novelist Tomi Adeyemi. The book, Adeyemi's debut novel and the first book in a planned trilogy, follows heroine Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magi ...
'', the first in the ''Legacy of Orïsha'' trilogy published by
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...
, which won the 2018
Andre Norton Award
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction (formerly the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy) is an annual award presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to the ...
for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, the 2019 Waterstones Book Prize, and the 2019 Hugo
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book. In 2019, she was named to the ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
''
30 Under 30
''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...
list. In 2020, she was named to the ''
TIME
Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' 100 Most Influential People of 2020 in the "Pioneers" category.
Early life
Tomi Adeyemi was born on August 1, 1993
in the United States to parents who emigrated from
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
. Her father was a physician in Nigeria but found employment as a taxi driver while he waited to transfer his qualifications. Adeyemi's mother worked as a cleaning woman. Adeyemi grew up in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
and was not exposed to her Nigerian heritage; her parents decided not to teach her or her siblings their native tongue. She would later embrace her heritage as an adult, explaining, "I didn't think too much of it and I think that is the kind of an experience of the first generation. You're just trying to fit in. You don't realize how cool your culture is until you get out of that phase of trying to fit in." She would later describe one of her novels as a love letter to her culture.
[Kembrey, Melanie (March 9, 2018)]
"Interview: Tomi Adeyemi and her fantasy novel inspired by Black Lives Matter"
''The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
''.
Adeyemi wrote her first story when she was five years old, and continued to write throughout her teenage years. She graduated from
Hinsdale Central High School
Hinsdale Central High School, or HCHS (locally referred to as simply "Central") is a public four-year high school located at the corner of W. 55th St. and S. Grant St. in Hinsdale, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United ...
in
Hinsdale, Illinois
Hinsdale is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Hinsdale is a western suburb of Chicago. The population was 17,395 at the 2020 census, most of whom lived in DuPage County. The town's ZIP code is 60521. The town ...
in 2011.
[Wols, Lauren; Eck, Everett; Anderson, Hannah (March 21, 2018)]
"New author Tomi Adeyemi visits her alma mater"
Hinsdale Central High School
Hinsdale Central High School, or HCHS (locally referred to as simply "Central") is a public four-year high school located at the corner of W. 55th St. and S. Grant St. in Hinsdale, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United ...
(Hinsdale, Illinois
Hinsdale is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Hinsdale is a western suburb of Chicago. The population was 17,395 at the 2020 census, most of whom lived in DuPage County. The town's ZIP code is 60521. The town ...
). Adeyemi was qualified into the Hinsdale Central High School Foundation's Young Scholar Program in 2008 and went on to win their "Young Scholars" scholarship in 2010–2011. During her senior year, Adeyemi also received the Rani Sharma scholarship. She went on to graduate from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
with an honors degree in English Literature, then studied
West African mythology and culture in
Salvador, Brazil
Salvador (English language, English: ''Savior'') is a Municipalities of Brazil, Brazilian municipality and capital city of the Brazilian state, state of Bahia. Situated in the Zona da Mata in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of Braz ...
, on a fellowship. It was this experience that inspired her to write Children of Blood and Bone, the breakthrough novel that would launch her career.
Career
After Tomi Adeyemi moved to California, she worked at a Los Angeles film production company. When she decided to reduce her hours there to write a book, her parents, who had uprooted their lives in Nigeria to give her a better life, were not entirely accepting of this idea. Adeyemi says, "I'm first-generation Nigerian so I came out of my mother's womb and I was supposed to be a doctor, a lawyer or engineer, and I was like 'oh hey, I'm quitting my very well-paying job at a very stable company that has many future job opportunities for me' ... I'm so lucky that my parents were like, 'obviously we're not crazy about this but we love you'."
[
Adeyemi's first written novel did not yield positive feedback. She instead set herself a year to write another book that became ''Children of Blood and Bone'', and she entered it into Pitch Wars, a competition program in which emerging writers are matched with editors and authors to revise their work before they submit it to a literary agent.][
]
Legacy of Orïsha trilogy
Adeyemi's debut novel, ''Children of Blood and Bone
''Children of Blood and Bone'' is a 2018 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian-American novelist Tomi Adeyemi. The book, Adeyemi's debut novel and the first book in a planned trilogy, follows heroine Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magi ...
,'' was released in March 2018, and debuted at number 1 on ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' Young Adult Hardcover Bestseller List. It is a young-adult (YA) fantasy novel, featuring protagonist Zélie Adebola, who fights a monarchy to return magic to her people. Adeyemi has said she wanted to write a fantasy novel set in West Africa so that "a little Black girl ouldpick up my book one day and see herself as the star...I want her to know that she’s beautiful and she matters and she can have a crazy, magical adventure even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger
Hermione Jean Granger ( ) is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series. She first appears in the novel '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (1997), as a new student on her way to Hogwarts. After Harry and ...
." ''Children of Blood and Bone
''Children of Blood and Bone'' is a 2018 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian-American novelist Tomi Adeyemi. The book, Adeyemi's debut novel and the first book in a planned trilogy, follows heroine Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magi ...
'' was awarded the 2018 Andre Norton Award
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction (formerly the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy) is an annual award presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to the ...
for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy and is a finalist for the 2019 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book.
In late March 2017, Fox 2000 Pictures
Fox 2000 Pictures was an American film production company within The Walt Disney Studios. It was a sister studio of the larger film studio 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures specializing in producing independent films in mid-range re ...
purchased the film adaptation rights to the book. Reportedly the deals for the publishing and film rights were approximately seven figures. ''Deadline
Deadline(s) or The Deadline(s) may refer to:
* Time limit, a narrow field of time by which an objective must be accomplished
Arts, entertainment, and media Comics
* Deadline (DC Comics), a fictional villain
* ''Deadline'' (magazine), a British ...
'' described it as "one of the biggest YA debut novel publishing deals ever."
In November 2018, Adeyemi accused Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts (born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950) is an American author of more than 225 romance novels. She writes as J. D. Robb for the '' in Death'' series and has also written under the pseudonyms Jill March and for publicatio ...
of plagiarizing the title of her novel, ''Of Blood and Bone
The list of works by Nora Roberts includes all of the novels and novellas published by author Nora Roberts. The list is in order by year, and within each year it is in alphabetical order. It includes books published under the names Nora Roberts, J ...
'' from ''Children of Blood and Bone''. Adeyemi later retracted the accusation saying "after talking to her, I believe our titles were created in isolation". Roberts later clarified that her book had been titled and submitted to her publisher one year before Adeyemi's. She also criticised Adeyemi's lack of fact checking and the fact that Adeyemi had not deleted the accusation a day later.
For reasons unclear, her second novel, ''Children of Virtue and Vengeance'' was pushed back from its initial release date of March 2019 to June 2019. Adeyemi later stated on her Instagram that her publisher offered her two choices: June 2019 and December 2019, but she chose the former so fans would not have to wait. The workload was too much and the author, editor, and publisher agreed to give the second book more time. ''Children of Virtue and Vengeance'' became a #1 ''New York Times'' Bestseller in December 2019.
In December 2020, Fox's new parent company Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
announced that its subsidiary Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the '' Star Wars'' and ...
would be adapting ''Children of Blood and Bone'' into a movie. By 2021, Adeyemi had become frustrated with the pace of Lucasfilm's film adaptation process. She asked to serve as scriptwriter, a request that Lucasfilm had declined. Since Lucasfilm had wanted to focus on its own intellectual properties ''Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...
'', ''Indiana Jones
''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...
'', and ''Willow'', the company had allowed its film rights to ''Children of Blood and Bone'' to lapse in late 2021. In mid–January 2022, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
acquired the rights for a guaranteed exclusive theatrical release, with Temple Hill Entertainment producing alongside Sunswept Entertainment. As part of the agreement, Adeyemi will write the script and also serve as executive producer.
Other activities
While working on her debut novel ''Children of Blood and Bone'', Adeyemi worked as a creative writing coach.[ In addition to her success as a novelist, Adeyemi teaches creative writing through her online course]
The Writer's Roadmap
Her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.
Adeyemi made a guest appearance in the final episode of Hermione Granger and the Quarter Life Crisis
''Hermione Granger and the Quarter Life Crisis'' is a Fan fiction, fan-created TV series focused on Hermione Granger's life after Hogwarts. The show is created and directed by Eliyannah Amirah Yisrael, written by Jessica Jenks, L. Olive Hernandez, ...
.
Personal life
Tomi Adeyemi lives in San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
, California. She is of Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
heritage. She has two siblings. Her mother manages hospices just outside Chicago, her father is a doctor, and her brother is a musician.
Works
Legacy of Orïsha
* ''Children of Blood and Bone
''Children of Blood and Bone'' is a 2018 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian-American novelist Tomi Adeyemi. The book, Adeyemi's debut novel and the first book in a planned trilogy, follows heroine Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magi ...
'' (March 6, 2018)
* '' Children of Virtue and Vengeance'' (December 3, 2019)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adeyemi, Tomi
21st-century American novelists
American women novelists
Living people
American people of Nigerian descent
Harvard College alumni
Place of birth missing (living people)
American writers of young adult literature
Nigerian fantasy writers
American fantasy writers
Afrofuturist writers
1993 births
21st-century American women writers
American people of Yoruba descent
Yoruba women writers
Writers from San Diego
African-American women writers
Women science fiction and fantasy writers
Black speculative fiction authors
African-American novelists
21st-century African-American women
21st-century African-American writers