It is not every day you meet a 24 year old who is poised to become the next YA celebrated author. This is the story of Tomi Adeyemi, a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California.
Two years ago, Adeyemi was another recent college graduate with a BA in English who dreams of writing a book. Her acclaimed book, Children of Blood and Bone was however released in March 2018 and has since garnered rave reviews.
The book is the first in a trilogy, partly inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Tomi’s series examines racial injustices through a Young Adult Fantasy lens. And amazingly, it’s already being adapted into a movie.
Renowned author, Stephen King commended her for her sterling debut
When asked during her interview on Good Morning America about her reaction when the revered Stephen King commended her, she said: “When I saw that I was excited and my bother started over reacting. I was like this isn’t real and I kept crying. I said to myself, ‘Okay Stephen King knows your name, Stephen King watched you cry’.
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Daniel José Older, New York Times bestselling author describes her book as a “A magnificent, heartrending, earth-shaking debut.”
After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil.
The youngster is also passionate about blogging and teaching creative writing to her 4,500 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com. In the same vein, her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.
In the words of Caitlyn Paxton of National Public Radio:” Adeyemi has created a powerful metaphor for the cruelty of racism and the way that it weakens and divides a country. Fantasy novels are so often about a quest to overthrow evil — in Children of Blood and Bone, that evil is the oppression of a people based on the fear of their differences. Adeyemi doesn’t shy away from the violence that oppression creates. We see the maji enslaved, tortured, and beaten down, and like Zélie, we want them to have the power to rise up and shake off their oppressors. The narrative empowers without preaching, weaving its message deftly into a rip-roaring tale”.
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Adeyemi is the middle child of three – her brother is a musician and her younger sister still at college. Her father is a doctor, while her mother runs a group of hospices outside Chicago.
“ Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone has been called the biggest fantasy debut novel of 2018, drawing comparisons with everything from Game of Thrones to Black Panther, and has netted a movie deal reported to be worth seven figures” The Guardian reports.
Nothing can be more inspiring than Adeyemi’s strides.