# List of works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
**Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie** (born 1977) is a Nigerian writer whose published works span four novels, a short story collection, three book-length essays, a children's book, an early poetry collection, and a play.[1](https://www.cerep.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnaprim.html) • [2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58607/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) Born in Enugu and raised on the campus of the [University of Nigeria](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-nigeria), Nsukka, where her father was a professor, she left for the United States at 19 and now divides her time between the two countries.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, a figure her US publisher now puts above fifty-five.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) • [2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58607/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Novels | Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), Americanah (2013), Dream Count (2025)[1](https://www.cerep.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnaprim.html) |
| Short fiction | The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), a collection of 12 stories[4](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) |
| Book-length essays | We Should All Be Feminists (2014), Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017), Notes on Grief (2021)[1](https://www.cerep.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnaprim.html) |
| Early works | Decisions (poetry, 1997) and For Love of Biafra (play, 1998)[1](https://www.cerep.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnaprim.html) |
| Children's book | Mama's Sleeping Scarf (2023), written under the name Nwa Grace-James[2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58607/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) |
| Major awards | Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Purple Hibiscus), Orange Prize 2007 and its 2020 "Best of the Best" (Half of a Yellow Sun), National Book Critics Circle Award (Americanah), MacArthur Fellowship 2008[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) • [4](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) • [5](https://www.loc.gov/events/2025-national-book-festival/authors/item/n2003042876/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) |
| Translations | More than thirty languages per her official site; more than fifty-five per Penguin Random House[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) • [2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58607/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) |
| Anthology | Editor of The Best Short Stories 2021: The O. Henry Prize Winners[2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58607/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) |
## Early works
Adichie's first published book was **Decisions**, a collection of poems issued by Minerva Press in London in 1997, when she was still an undergraduate.[1](https://www.cerep.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnaprim.html) The following year Spectrum Books in Ibadan published her play For Love of Biafra.[1](https://www.cerep.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnaprim.html) Both appeared while she was studying in the United States, before any of her novels existed.
## The novels
**Purple Hibiscus** (2003), her debut, follows fifteen-year-old Kambili and her brother Jaja, children of a wealthy, devoutly Catholic but violent father, in southeastern Nigeria after a military coup.[6](https://www.chimamanda.com/books/page/2/) Agents had rejected the manuscript, telling her that Nigeria interested no one; after publication in the United States in October 2003, the novel was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction the following year and won the [Commonwealth Writers' Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/commonwealth-writers-prize) for best first book in 2005.[7](https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2015/02/05/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-imperiale_4570126_3260.html) It also won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in the best debut fiction category in 2004.[4](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/)
**Half of a Yellow Sun** (2006) turns to the Biafran war of the late 1960s through a university lecturer in Nsukka, his lover Olanna, and their teenage houseboy Ugwu, beginning after Nigerian independence in 1960.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie) The novel won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007, a prize now called the [Women's Prize for Fiction](https://www.edgepedia.org/womens-prize-for-fiction), and in 2020 was named that award's "Best of the Best."[5](https://www.loc.gov/events/2025-national-book-festival/authors/item/n2003042876/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) It was also a New York Times Notable Book and was adapted into a 2013 film starring [Chiwetel Ejiofor](https://www.edgepedia.org/chiwetel-ejiofor) and [Thandiwe Newton](https://www.edgepedia.org/thandiwe-newton).[4](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie)
**Americanah** (2013) is a tricontinental love story about Ifemelu, who leaves military-ruled Nigeria to study in the United States and writes a blog about race called "Raceteenth, or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black," and her first love Obinze, who lives as an undocumented immigrant in London after being shut out of post-9/11 America.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie) • [9](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/878/americanah-bychimamanda-ngozi-adichie/9780307455925/readers-guide/) The novel won the US National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and was named one of The New York Times' Top Ten Best Books of 2013; [Penguin Random House](https://www.edgepedia.org/penguin-random-house) later listed it among the Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) • [10](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-books/)
**Dream Count** (2025), her first novel in a decade, follows four women during the COVID-19 pandemic: Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer in America; her lawyer friend Zikora; Chiamaka's cousin Omelogor, a Nigerian banker; and Kadiatou, a Guinean housekeeper.[11](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/753002/dream-count-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/9780593802724/) It was published on March 4, 2025 by 4th Estate in London and Knopf in New York, running 416 pages and becoming a New York Times bestseller.[11](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/753002/dream-count-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/9780593802724/) Adichie has said in the book's afterword that Kadiatou's story was inspired by Nafissatou Diallo, the Guinean hotel maid whose 2011 sexual assault accusation against IMF chief [Dominique Strauss-Kahn](https://www.edgepedia.org/dominique-strauss-kahn) was dismissed, and that she sought "to 'write' a wrong in the balance of stories."[8](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie)
## Short fiction
**The Thing Around Your Neck** (2009) collects twelve stories about [Nigerians](https://www.edgepedia.org/nigerians) in Africa and the United States, and won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.[10](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-books/) • [4](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) Her magazine fiction has run chiefly in [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker): the story "Cell One" became her first appearance there in 2007, and "The Headstrong Historian" (2008) was written in response to [Chinua Achebe](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinua-achebe)'s novel Things Fall Apart.[12](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie) In 2010 The New Yorker placed her on its "20 Under 40" list of fiction writers, and her story "Birdsong" appeared in that issue.[12](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie) Her nonfiction "Notes on Grief" also ran in the magazine in September 2020 before becoming a book, and the story "Chuka" appeared there in February 2025, shortly before Dream Count.[12](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie) Her short stories have also appeared in Zoetrope, Granta, the Financial Times, and The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003.[4](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) In 2021 she edited the O. Henry anthology The Best Short Stories 2021.[2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58607/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/)
## Book-length essays and the children's book
Adichie's three books of nonfiction all grow out of speeches or personal events. **We Should All Be Feminists** (2014) expands her 2012 TEDx Euston talk of the same name into a short essay defining feminism for a general audience.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie) Beyoncé later sampled the talk on the track "Flawless."[8](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie) **Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions** (2017) began as a letter to a childhood friend asking how to raise her daughter as a feminist, and gives fifteen suggestions on the subject.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) • [10](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-books/) **Notes on Grief** (2021), an essay about losing her father, who died in the summer of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, expands her New Yorker piece of the same name and blends personal memory with his life story as a professor of statistics who survived the Biafran war.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) • [10](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-books/) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie)
Her first children's book, **Mama's Sleeping Scarf** (2023), about a little girl's love for her mother's scarf, was written under the pseudonym Nwa Grace-James.[2](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58607/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/)
## Talks and public writing
Adichie has delivered two talks that she and observers describe as landmark: **The Danger of a Single Story**, a 2009 TED talk that argues against reducing people and continents to one narrative, and **We Should All Be Feminists**, her 2012 TEDx Euston talk.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) Her essayistic writing includes newspaper and magazine pieces; in 2014 she published the essay "Why can't a smart woman love fashion?" in Elle, and in 2020 an opinion piece in The New York Times titled "Nigeria Is Murdering Its Citizens."[13](https://human.libretexts.org/Learning_Objects/Literature_Supplemental_Modules/Chimamanda_Adichie%3A_A_Research_Guide/03%3A_Bibliography) She also wrote the introduction to a posthumous 2022 collection reprinting Binyavanga Wainaina's satirical essay "How to Write About Africa."[8](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie)
## Reception and standing
Adichie's awards trace the arc of her books. Purple Hibiscus brought the Commonwealth Writers' Prize; [Half of a Yellow Sun](https://www.edgepedia.org/half-of-a-yellow-sun) brought the Orange Prize and, in 2020, its "Best of the Best" honor; [Americanah](https://www.edgepedia.org/americanah) brought the [National Book Critics Circle Award](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-book-critics-circle-award).[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) • [5](https://www.loc.gov/events/2025-national-book-festival/authors/item/n2003042876/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/) In 2008 she received a MacArthur Fellowship, and she was named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015; Fortune named her one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders in 2017.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) She belongs to the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[3](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/) Critics have often placed her in a literary lineage with Chinua Achebe, who praised her as "a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers" when her work reached The New Yorker in 2007.[12](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie)
The reception of [Dream Count](https://www.edgepedia.org/dream-count) in 2025 noted the shift in her fiction: reviewers in [The Atlantic](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-atlantic) and the Associated Press read it as a return to the novel form after roughly a decade in which her published books had been nonfiction, and one described it as her first work of longform fiction in over a decade.[14](https://apnews.com/article/043e6f3e6510f12f91de0e3a645d9423) The same reviewers remarked that its tone is darker than Americanah's, with four female protagonists and no tidy resolutions.[15](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/03/chimamanda-adichies-anti-romance-novel/681922/)
## References
1. [The Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Website, Primary Sources bibliography, maintained by Daria Tunca](https://www.cerep.ulg.ac.be/adichie/cnaprim.html)
2. [Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Penguin Random House author page](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/58607/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/)
3. [About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, chimamanda.com](https://www.chimamanda.com/about/)
4. [Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hachette Book Group](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/)
5. [Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Library of Congress 2025 National Book Festival](https://www.loc.gov/events/2025-national-book-festival/authors/item/n2003042876/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/)
6. [Books Showcase Archive, chimamanda.com](https://www.chimamanda.com/books/page/2/)
7. [Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, impériale, Le Monde (2015)](https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2015/02/05/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-imperiale_4570126_3260.html)
8. [Where to start with: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Guardian (2025)](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/19/where-to-start-with-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie)
9. [Americanah Reader's Guide, Penguin Random House](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/878/americanah-bychimamanda-ngozi-adichie/9780307455925/readers-guide/)
10. [A Guide to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Books, Penguin Random House](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-books/)
11. [Dream Count, Penguin Random House product page](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/753002/dream-count-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/9780593802724/)
12. [Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, contributor page, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie)
13. [Bibliography, Chimamanda Adichie: A Research Guide, LibreTexts](https://human.libretexts.org/Learning_Objects/Literature_Supplemental_Modules/Chimamanda_Adichie%3A_A_Research_Guide/03%3A_Bibliography)
14. [Book Review: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's latest novel marks a vibrant return, Associated Press (2025)](https://apnews.com/article/043e6f3e6510f12f91de0e3a645d9423)
15. [Chimamanda Adichie’s Anti-Romance Novel, The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/03/chimamanda-adichies-anti-romance-novel/681922/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Prose fiction › Novels and collections by author › Novels by author*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license