Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi
Born1989 (age 34–35)
Mampong, Ghana
EducationStanford University (BA)
University of Iowa (MFA)
Notable worksHomegoing (2016), Transcendent Kingdom (2020)
Notable awards

Yaa Gyasi (born 1989) is a Ghanaian American novelist. Her work, most notably her 2016 debut novel Homegoing and her 2020 novel Transcendent Kingdom, features themes of lineage, generational trauma, and Black and African identities.[1][2] At the age of 26, Gyasi won the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for Best First Book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" honors for 2016 and the 2017 American Book Award. She was awarded a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature in 2020.[3] As of 2019, Gyasi lives in Brooklyn, New York.[4]

  1. ^ Mikić, Marijana (2023). "Chapter 6 Race, Trauma, and the Emotional Legacies of Slavery in Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing". Ethnic American Literatures and Critical Race Narratology. Taylor & Francis. pp. 100–114. ISBN 9781032198538.
  2. ^ Yerima, Dina (2021). "Transcendent Kingdom". Tydskrif vir Letterkunde. 28 (1). ProQuest 2599125201 – via ProQuest.
  3. ^ "Yaa Gyasi". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
  4. ^ Wolfe, Eli (June 28, 2016). "How Yaa Gyasi found her story in slavers' outpost". SFGATE. Retrieved May 9, 2024.