Helen Oyeyemi
| Helen Oyeyemi | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Helen O. Oyeyemi 1984 (age 31–32) |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Genre | Fiction |
Helen Olajumoke Oyeyemi (born 10 December 1984) is a British novelist.
Life and writings
Oyeyemi wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at school studying for her A-levels[1] at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.
While studying social and political sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, Oyeyemi saw two of her plays, Juniper's Whitening and Victimese, performed by fellow students to critical acclaim and subsequently published by Methuen. In 2007 Bloomsbury published Oyeyemi's second novel, The Opposite House, which is inspired by Cuban mythology.[2][3] Her third novel, White is for Witching, described as having "roots in Henry James and Edgar Allan Poe", was published by Picador in May 2009. A fourth novel, Mr Fox, was published by Picador in June 2011, and a fifth, Boy, Snow, Bird, in 2014.[4]
Oyeyemi's latest book, the story collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, was released in 2016.[5]
Professional awards and recognition
Her novel White Is For Witching was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. In 2009 Oyeyemi was recognized as one of the women on Venus Zine's "25 under 25" list. In 2013 she was included in the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list.[6] Boy, Snow, Bird was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2014. Oyeyemi was a judge on the Booktrust Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for 2015,[7] and served as a judge for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize.[8]
In a 2016 interview with Slate, Oyeyemi was named as one of the "most gifted" writers at work today. Since 2014 her home has been in Prague.[9][10]
Bibliography
Novels
- The Icarus Girl (2005)
- The Opposite House (2007)
- White is for Witching (2009, French translation as Le Blanc va aux sorcières, 2011)
- Mr Fox (2011)
- Boy, Snow, Bird (2014)[4]
Plays
- Juniper's Whitening (2004)[11]
- Victimese (2005)
Short story collections
- What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours (2016)
References
- ↑ Jordan, Justine (11 June 2011). "Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
- ↑ "Oyeyemi's 'Opposite House'". NPR. 26 June 2007.
- ↑ D'Erasmo, Stacey (27 February 2014). "Helen Oyeyemi's 'Boy, Snow, Bird' turns a fairy tale inside out". The Los Angeles Times.
- 1 2 Quinn, Annalisa (7 March 2014). "The Professionally Haunted Life Of Helen Oyeyemi". NPR.
- ↑ Oyeyemi, Helen (2016-03-08). What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. Place of publication not identified: Riverhead Books. ISBN 9781594634635.
- ↑ Granta.com
- ↑ Irvine, Lindesay (May 27, 2015). "Jenny Erpenbeck Wins Independent Foreign Fiction Prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
- ↑ Mark Medley, "The Giller Prize expands its jury to five people ", The Globe and Mail, 14 January 2015.
- ↑ Hoggard, Liz (2 March 2014). "Helen Oyeyemi: 'I'm interested in the way women disappoint one another'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ↑ Bradshaw, M René (16 March 2016). "What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi". The London Magazine. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
- ↑ "Juniper's Whitening by Helen Oyeyemi", Methuen.
External links
- "Too Talented to be This Young" from the Globe and Mail.
- "Helen Oyeyemi on haunted house novels", La Clé des Langues, 28 August 2012.
- Author Page on PEN American Center website.
- Author Page on picador.com.
- "i live with him, i see his face, i go no more away" (short story, New Statesman, 18 December 1996.
- Author Page on AALBC.com website.
- "A Muse Gets Mad In Oyeyemi's Magical 'Mr. Fox'" (interview), NPR Books, 2 October 2011.