Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American author and creative writing coach born on August 1, 1993 in the United States to Nigerian parents. Her book 'Children of Blood and Bone' is the first in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers and contributed to her fame in the writing world.
Tomi Adeyemi Biography, Family, Early Life And Education
Tomi Adeyemi was born on the 1st of August, 1993 to a Nigerian parents who migrated to the United States. Shortly after they moved to the US, her father, a trained physician worked as a taxi driver while waiting for his qualifications to be transferred while her Mum got a job as a cleaner.Due to the nature of her parents' job and choices, she wasn't exposed to the Nigerian heritage in her younger age as they tried hiding it from her. However as she became a bit advanced in age, she embraced the African heritage and started trying to fit in.
"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 realise how cool your culture is until you get out of that phase of trying to fit in."She even described one of her novels as a love letter to her culture.
According to the award winning writer, just like many other great Nigerian authors like Chimamanda Adiche, she started writing at a very young age and wrote her first story at the age of five.
According to her;
"I loved myself so much I gave myself a twin named Tomi. Everything started out fine. But then I didn't write another black character until I was 18. I look at that gap, and just the thought of me sitting alone in my room reinforcing the lies the world told us pisses me off".Tomi Adeyemi graduated from Hinsdale Central High School in Hinsdale, Illinois in 2011 and proceeded to Harvard University where she got an honours degree in English Literature. She also studied West African mythology and culture on a fellowship in Salvador, Brazil.
Tomi Adeyemi Personal Life And Career
Adeyemi is a sister to the California-based rapper Tobi Adeyemi (popularly known as tobi lou) who has worked with Smino & No-ID. She moved to California when she got a job at a Los Angeles film production company.She decided to reduce her working hours in order to write her novel but her parents didn't entirely support the idea but never stopped her. According to her;
"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'."She also worked as a creative writing coach while working on her first novel which did not yield positive feedback. Instead of giving up, she instead set herself a year to write another book that became Children of Blood and Bone. What boosted her career was her participation in the 2016 Pitch Wars competition, where emerging writers are matched with authors and editors to revise their work before they submit it to a literary agent. According to her, after being mentored by an incredible editor, her revised manuscript got 32 full requests, 15 offers of representation, and landed her to her dream agents.
She released Children of Blood and Bone in March 2018 and it was debuted at number 1 on The New York Times Young Adult Hardcover Bestseller List.
The novel is a young-adult (YA) fantasy novel, featuring protagonist Zélie Adebola, who fights a monarchy to return magic to her people. Children of Blood and Bone is a kind of book that you won't ever want to finish, it'll keep your eyes glued up to the last pages.
If you are yet to read the book, it's available on Konga and Jumia.
Controversies
Tomi Adeyemi in November 2018 accused another popular writer Nora Roberts of plagiarising the title of her book. According to her, the title to Nora Roberts' soon to be published book, 'Of Blood and Bone' was gotten from her own novel.The issue was later clarified by Nora Roberts as she explained that the book had been titled and published one year before Adeyemi's. She further blamed the issue on Adeyemi's lack of fact checking and the fact that Adeyemi had not deleted the Twitter a day later. According to the US Copyright Office, "copyright protection doesn't cover names, titles, slogans, or short phrases."
Tomi Adeyemi Net Worth
Tomi Adeyemi's novel, Children of Blood and Bone was a best seller with millions of copied sold all over the world. The novel also landed her a 7-figure deal with the Fox 2000. According to VergeHub.com, Tomi Adeyemi estimated net worth is $20,000,000.Tomi Adeyemi Social Media Handles
Tomi Adeyemi is an active user of the social media and can be seen on:Twitter: @Tomi_Adeyemi
Instagram: @TadeyemiBooks
Thanks for reading along, all corrections to this biography should be forwarded to [email protected].
We give you the best daily information on news, technology, lifestyle, career, health tips, agriculture, business and entertainment. If you can write very well and want to make a living writing online, click HERE!