Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria, where she attended medical school for two years at the University of Nigeria before coming to the United States. A 2003 O. Henry Prize winner, Adichie was shortlisted for the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing. Her work has been selected by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the BBC Short Story Awards and has appeared in various literary publications, including Zoetrope and the Iowa Review. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and longlisted for the Booker. She now divides her time between the U.S. and Nigeria. Her newest book is Americanah: A Novel.

Faith Adiele is co-editor of the international anthology Coming of Age Around the World and the writer, narrator, and subject of My Journey Home, a PBS documentary about growing up with a Nordic-American mother and then traveling to Nigeria as an adult to find her father and siblings. Meeting Faith, her account of becoming Thailand’s first black Buddhist nun, won the PEN Beyond Margins Award for Best Memoir. A contributor to O: The Oprah Magazine, Essence, and Transition, Adiele has been featured on NPR and the Tavis Smiley show. She is currently an Associate Professor of Writing at California College of the Arts.