Tag Archives: Akwaeke Emezi

US net develops Nigerian novel

Tamara Carter (left) and Akwaeke Emezi

Nigerian-born author Akwaeke Emezi and US writer Tamara Carter are working on an adaptation of one of the former’s novels for an American channel.

Emezi’s Freshwater is being developed as a drama by US pay TV network FX, with Emezi and Carter writing.

The story explores Igbo spirituality, mental illness and Igbo culture. It follows Nigerian Ada, a final-year college student who discovers she has three spirits living in her subconscious. The spirits take control of her and threaten to erode her sanity.

A finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Award, the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, Freshwater has been translated into eight languages . It has also been nominated for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction, the ceremony for which is being held in London next week.

Emezi previously won the Commonwealth Regional Short Story Prize for her work Who is like God.

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