List of works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer who won the 2007 Women's Prize for Fiction.^[2] She is best known for her novels, poems, and short stories, which are often set in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria, where she was raised.^[3]

By 13, Adichie had started analysing stories by her father James Nwoye Adichie including the ones about Biafra. At 20, she made her debut as a published writer with the poetry collection "Decisions", published in 1997, followed by a play, For the Love of Biafra in 1998.^[4] She gained critical recognition with the release of her first novel Purple Hibiscus, published in the United States on 30 October 2003 by Algonquin Books.^[5] It took Adichie four years to research and write her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, published in 2006.^[6] She wrote Americanah, her third novel published in 2013 and Dream Count, her fourth novel published in 2025.^[7] She also wrote Mama's Sleeping Scarf, her first children's picture book published in 2023.^[8]

Adichie is a prolific short story writer, and many of her short stories were written in her short story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck, published in 2009.^[9] She has written two book-length essays We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. She has also written several short essays on topics ranging from postcolonialism to feminism.^[10] She has earned many accolades for her works including National Book Critics Circle Award,^[11] MacArthur Fellowship,^[12] and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[13]

Source:^[14]

Play

• For Love of Biafra (1998). Ibadan: Spectrum Books ISBN 978-9780290320

Novels

• Purple Hibiscus (2003). Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books; London: 4th Estate, 2004; Lagos: Farafina Books, 2004 ISBN 978-1616202415
• Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). London: 4th Estate; Lagos: Farafina Books; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007 ISBN 978-1400044160
• Americanah (2013). London: 4th Estate; New York: Alfred A. Knopf; Lagos: Farafina Books ISBN 978-0307455925
• Dream Count (2025). London: 4th Estate; New York: Random House ISBN 978-0593802724

Book-length essays

• We Should All Be Feminists (2014). New York: Vintage Books; London: 4th Estate ISBN 978-0008115272
• Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017). London: 4th Estate; New York: Alfred A. Knopf ISBN 978-1524733131
• Notes on Grief (2021). London: 4th Estate; New York: Alfred A. Knopf ISBN 978-0593320808

Children's book

• Mama's Sleeping Scarf (2023). New York: Alfred A. Knopf; London: HarperCollins Children's Books ISBN 978-0593535578

Anthology

• Editor, The Best Short Stories 2021: The O. Henry Prize Winners (2021). New York: Anchor Books ISBN 978-0593311257

Source:^[14]

Poetry collection

• "Decisions" (1997). London: Minerva Press ISBN 978-1861064226

Poems

• "Sheer Beauty". Prime People
• "We dream" (September 1998). Poetry, pp. 3–9
• "Visiting Nigeria" (June 2001). Poetry
• "My Grandmother's Funeral" (2001). Allegheny Review, pp. 42–43

Source:^[14]

Short story collection

• The Thing Around Your Neck (2009). London: 4th Estate; New York: Alfred A. Knopf; Lagos: Farafina Books ISBN 978-0307455918

Short stories (ebook format)

• The Shivering (2016). Vintage Shorts ISBN 978-0525431893
• Zikora (2020). Amazon Original Stories ISBN 978-1542029612
• The Visit (2021). Amazon Original Stories ISBN 978-1542032728

Short stories in journals and anthologies

• "You in America" (2001). Zoetrope: All-Story
• "The Scarf" (2002). Wasafiri, pp. 26–30
• "The American Embassy" (2002). Prism International, pp. 22–29
• "Half of a Yellow Sun" (2002). Literary Potpourri; published in 2003 in Zoetrope: All-Story, pp. 10–17; published in 2004 in The Best American Nonrequired Reading edited by Dave Eggers, pp. 1–17; published in French as "Pâle était le soleil" (15 July 2004). Courrier International; published in Italian as "Mezzo sole giallo" (30 December 2004). Internazionale
• "My Mother, the Crazy African". In Posse Review: Multi-Ethnic Anthology; published in One World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories (2009) by Chris Brazier, pp. 53–60
• "New Husband" (2003). The Iowa Review, pp. 53–66; published in The Thing around Your Neck (2009), pp. 22–42
• "Women Here Drive Buses" in Proverbs for the People: Contemporary African-American Fiction edited by Tracy Price-Thompson and TaRessa Stovall, pp. 1–7
• "Light Skin" (2003). Calyx, pp. 49–63
• "Transition to Glory" (30 September 2003). One Story; published in African Love Stories: An Anthology (2006) edited by Ama Ata Aidoo, pp. 34–49; published in All the Good Things around Us: An Anthology of African Short Stories (2016) edited by Ivor Agyeman-Duah
• "Lagos, Lagos" in Discovering Home: A selection of writings from the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing (2003) edited by Binyavanga Wainaina, pp. 76–86
• "The Thing around Your Neck" (2004). Prospect, pp. 64–68
• "Recaptured Spirits" (2004). Notre Dame Review, pp. 47–58
• "A Private Experience" (2004). Virginia Quarterly Review, pp. 170–179
• "You in America" (2006); published in This Is Not Chick Lit by Elizabeth Merrick, pp. 3–13; published in Ms., pp. 64–70; published in The Thing around Your Neck (2009), pp. 115–127
• "The Scarf" (28 December 2008). The Observer, pp. 18; published in The Thing around Your Neck (2009), pp. 43–56; published in An African Quilt: 24 Modern African Stories (2013) by Barbara H. Solomon and W. Reginald Rampone Jr., pp. 27–39
• "The Grief of Strangers" (2004). Granta, pp. 65–81
• "Ghosts" (2004). Zoetrope: All Story, pp. 38–43; published in The Thing around Your Neck (2009), pp. 57–73
• "Do Butterflies Eat Ashes?" (2005). Fiction, pp. 3–17
• "The Master" (2005). Granta, pp. 17–41
• "Tomorrow is Too Far" (2006). Prospect, pp. 56–63; published in The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), pp. 187–197
• "The Time Story" (2006). Per Contra
• "Jumping Monkey Hill" (2006). Granta, pp. 161–176; published in The Thing around Your Neck (2009), pp. 95–114; published in The High Flier and Other Stories (2011) edited by Jairus Omuteche ISBN 978-9966258045
• "Cell One" (29 January 2007). The New Yorker, pp. 72–77; published in Best African American Fiction: 2009 (2009) edited by Gerald Early and E. Lynn Harris, pp. 61–73; published in The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), pp. 3–21
• "On Monday Last Week" (2007). Granta, pp. 31–48; published in The Thing around Your Neck (2009), pp. 74–94
• "My American Jon" (27 August 2007) in Binyavanga Wainaina: Me, My Writing and African Writers by Binyavanga Wainaina; published in Conjunctions, pp. 231–240; published in 2009 in The Mechanics' Institute Review, pp. 27–37; published in African Sexualities: A Reader (2011) edited by Sylvia Tamale, pp. 288–294
• "A Tampered Destiny" (29 December 2007). Financial Times
• "Emeka" in Four Letter Word: New Love Letters (2007) edited by Joshua Knelman and Rosalind Porter
• "Hair" (10 November 2007). The Guardian; published in 2008 in Ms., pp. 66–70
• "The Headstrong Historian" (23 June 2008). The New Yorker, pp. 68–75; published in The PEN/O. Henry Prize stories 2010 (2010) edited by Laura Furman; published in The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), pp. 198–218; published in Best African American fiction 2010 (2010) edited by Gerald Early and Nikki Giovanni, pp. 27–41; published in Who Knows Tomorrow edited by Udo Kittelmann [de], Chika Okeke-Agulu and Britta Schmit; published in The Norton Anthology of World Literature (2018) edited by Martin Puchner
• "Chinasa" (27 January 2009). The Guardian; published in New Internationalist on 1 July 2009
• "Do" in Anonthology (2009)
• "Sola" (30 August 2009). The Sunday Times, pp. 60; published in Freedom: Short Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2009) ISBN 978-0307588838
• "Quality Street" (1 February 2010). Guernica; published in New Statesman from 5–18 April 2010, pp. 36–39
• "Ceiling" (2010). Granta, pp. 65–80
• "Birdsong" (20 September 2010). The New Yorker, pp. 96–103; published in 20 Under 40: Stories (2010) edited by Deborah Treisman, pp. 1–19; published in Literature: A Portable Anthology edited by Janet Gardner, pp. 434–445
• "The Arrangers of Marriage" in The Granta Book of the African Short Story (2011) edited by Helon Habila, pp. 1–17
• "New Husband" (2009), published in The Thing Around Your Neck, pp. 167–186
• "Checking Out" (18 March 2013). The New Yorker, pp. 66–73
• "Ofodile" (21 December 2013). The Guardian, pp. 46
• "The miraculous deliverance of Oga Jona" (18 July 2014). Scoop
• "The Shivering", published in The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), pp. 142–166; published in Africa: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara (2014) edited by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey
• "Olikoye" (2015). Matter
• "Apollo" (13 April 2015). The New Yorker, pp. 64–69
• "The Arrangements" (3 July 2016). The New York Times
• "How Did You Feel About It?" (2017). Harper's Bazaar
• "Details" (2017). McSweeney's Quarterly, pp. 23–28
• "Janelle Asked to the Bedroom" (20 October 2017). The New York Times; published in Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria (2021) edited by Nduka Otiono and Diego Odoh Okenyodo ISBN 978-9788033677
• "Chuka" (14–24 February 2025). The New Yorker

Essays published in newspapers, journals and magazines

• "Heart is where the Home was" (2003). Topic Magazine
• "Chasing American" (21 September 2004). Farafina
• "On sex, we are just buffoons: my response" (15 August 2004). Vanguard
• "The Line of No Return" (29 November 2004). The New York Times, p. A21; published as "The line of no return at the embassy" (30 November 2004). International Herald Tribune, p. 6
• "Nsukka in the eyes of a novelist" (3 January 2005). The Guardian; published in the P.S. section of Harper Perennial edition of Purple Hibiscus (2005), pp. 9-14
• "Blinded by God's business" (19 February 2005). The Guardian
• "Diary" (4 July 2005). New Statesman, p. 10
• "Blissful Sloth" (2005). Johns Hopkins Magazine
• "A Nigerian Book Tour in Australia" (2006). Farafina, pp. 3-5
• "Life During Wartime: Sierra Leone, 1997" (12 June 2006). The New Yorker, pp. 72-73
• "Buildings fall down, pensions aren't paid, politicians are murdered, riots are in the air ... and yet I love Nigeria" (8 August 2006). The Guardian, p. 5
• "The little boy who talked of magic" (19 August 2006). Time
• "Truth and Lies" (16 September 2006). The Guardian, p. 22
• "My college roommate expected me to be a she-Tarzan" (2006). Jane, pp. 126-127
• "Our Africa Lenses" (13 November 2006). The Washington Post, p. A21; published as "Adopting Africans not the answer" (14 November 2006). Newsday, p. 51; published in a shorter version as "My Africa lens clearly sees charity in sharp relief" (19 November 2006). St. Petersburg Times, p. 1
• "In the Shadow of Biafra" in the P.S. section of the Harper Perennial edition of Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), pp. 9-12
• "Shall I Live, Or Shall I Blog-Blah-Blah?" (1 April 2007). Hartford Courant
• "An der Klimafront: Schwarze Weihnachten" (11 April 2007). Neue Zürcher Zeitung
• "The exemplary chronicler of an African tragedy" (13 June 2007). The Guardian
• "The Writing Life" (17 June 2007). The Washington Post, p. 11
• "Kitchen Talk: Peppers" (2007). Brick, pp. 49-52
• "Real Food" (10 September 2007). The New Yorker, p. 92; published in Best African American Essays: 2009 (2009) edited by Debra Dickerson and Gerald Early, pp. 20-22
• "Operation" (2007). Granta, pp. 31-37; published as "To My One Love" (2008) in Utne Reader, pp. 84-86
• "An African Education in No Sweetness Here" (18 January 2008). NPR
• "Sex in the City" (2 February 2008). The Guardian, p. 3
• "Guest Editor's Note" (March-April 2008). Farafina, p. 3
• "Nigeria's immorality is about hypocrisy, not miniskirts" (2 April 2008). The Guardian, p. 32; published in The Hindu on 4 April 2008, p. 11; published in Leadership on 7 April 2008; published as "In Nigeria, miniskirts are a maximum issue" (4 April 2008). The Age
• "The Colour of an Awkward Conversation" (8 June 2008). The Washington Post, p. 7; published as "The color of an awkward conversation about race" (15 June 2008). The Dallas Morning News; published in Black in America: A Broadview Topics Reader (2018) edited by Jessica Edwards ISBN 978-1554814282
• "As a child, I thought my father invincible. I also thought him remote" (15 June 2008). The Observer
• "African Authenticity and the Biafran Experience" (2008). Transition Magazine, pp. 42-53
• "Strangely Personal" (2008). PEN America, pp. 34-37; published in Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta (2008) edited by Michael Watts
• "Diary: The writer of Half of a Yellow Sun on the sour mood in Lagos, a reborn US and juicy plums" (28 March 2009). Times, p. 2; published as "Diary: the writer of Half a Yellow Sun on the joys of water for non-swimmers" (28 March 2009). Times
• "Diary" (11 July 2009). Financial Times, p. 2
• "My hero: Muhtar Bakare" (19 September 2009). The Guardian, p. 5
• "The Police, Our Friends" (30 September 2009). NEXT
• "Why do South Africans hate Nigerians?" (5 October 2009). The Guardian, p. 2
• "Father Chinedu" (2009). PEN America, pp. 91-93
• "Everywhere, moisture is greedily sucked up" (18 December 2009). The Guardian, p. 25; published as "The man who rediscovered Africa" (24 January 2010). Salon.com
• "What I see in the mirror" (23 January 2010). The Guardian Weekend, p. 43
• "Letter from Lagos" (2010). McSweeney's Quarterly, p. 1
• "Blood, oil and the banality of greed" (4 April 2010). NEXT
• "A new Nigerian-ness is infusing the nation" (10 May 2010). The Globe and Mail, p. 17
• "My favourite dress" (8 June 2010). The Guardian, p. 7
• "World Cup 2010: Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and South Africa - my boys" (11 June 2010). The Guardian, p. 2
• "Rereading: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee" (10 July 2010). The Guardian, p. 4; published as "Exposing America's social fault lines" (18 July 2010). Sunday Star-Times, p. 7
• "The Role of Literature in Modern Africa" (2010). New African, p. 96
• "A Street of Puzzles" (5 December 2010). The New York Times, p. 9; published as "Windows on the World" (26 December 2010). The Observer; published in Windows on the World: Fifty Writers, Fifty Views (2014) by Matteo Pericoli, pp. 16-18 ISBN 978-1101617113
• "Women of the Decade" (10 December 2010). Financial Times
• "A Nigerian revolution" (17 March 2011). The Guardian, p. 38
• "The Year's Biggest He Said, She Said" (26 December 2011 - 2 January 2012). Newsweek, pp. 42-43; published as "DSK Vs. The Maid: Who Would the Jury Have Believed?" (19 December 2011). The Daily Beast
• "No More Superpower?" (24 June 2011). The New York Times
• "Why Are You Here?" (15 January 2012). Guernica
• "A Country's Frustration, Fueled Overnight" (17 January 2012). The New York Times, p. 23
• "To Instruct and Delight: A Case For Realist Literature" (15 March 2012). The Commonwealth Foundation
• "My Uncle Mai" (19 May 2012). Financial Times, p. 26
• "Things Left Unsaid: review of There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe (2012). London Review of Books, pp. 32-33
• "Chinua Achebe at 82: We Remember Differently" (23 November 2012). Premium Times; published in Chinua Achebe: Tributes and Reflections (2014) edited by Nana Ayebia Clarke and James Currey, pp. 90-96; published as "Awo Versus Achebe - We Remember Differently" (24 November 2012). Vanguard
• "Facts are stranger than fiction" (20 April 2013). The Guardian, p. 15; published as "Truth is no stranger to fiction" (10 May 2013). Mail & Guardian
• "The baby who never made it to Atlanta" (8 December 2013). The New York Times, p. 9; published as "A flight diversion" (6 December 2013). The New York Times
• "We have lost a star" (19 January 2014). Premium Times
• "Why can't he just be like everyone else?" (18 February 2014). The Scoop; republished on 19 February 2014 in NewswireNGR and The Daily Times
• "Why can't a smart woman love fashion?" (20 February 2014). Elle
• "Hiding From Our Past" (1 May 2014). The New Yorker
• "The President I Want" (4 May 2014). Scoop
• "Nigeria's brutal past haunts the present" (31 May 2014). The Daily Telegraph
• "I decided to call myself a Happy Feminist" (18 October 2014). The Guardian , p. 2
• "Lights out in Nigeria" (1 February 2015). The New York Times, p. 4
• "Democracy, Deferred" (10 February 2015). The Atlantic
• "On The Oba Of Lagos" (10 April 2015). Olisa.tv
• "Raised Catholic" (14 October 2015). The Atlantic
• "Why Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Considers Her Sister a Firm Cushion at Her Back" (2016). Vanity Fair
• "Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions" (12 October 2016). Facebook
• "To the First Lady, With Love" (17 October 2016). T: The New York Times Style Magazine
• "Nigeria's Failed Promises" (19 October 2016). The New York Times, p. 14
• "What Hillary Clinton's Fans Love About Her" (3 November 2016). The Atlantic
• "Now Is the Time to Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About" (2 December 2016). The New Yorker
• "Rereading Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich" (1 August 2017). The New Yorker
• "Thank you for your patience" (2017). McSweeney's Quarterly
• "My Fashion Nationalism" (20 October 2017). Financial Times
• "Two Stories on Malaria" (25 April 2018). Evening Standard
• "The Carnage of the Cameroons" (16 September 2018). The New York Times, p. 10
• "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie On Her Most Cherished Childhood Memories" (2018). British Vogue
• "Is There Anything Else I Can Help You with Today?" (28 January 2019). The Paris Review
• "Still Becoming: At Home in Lagos with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie" (29 April 2019). Esquire; published in Of This Our Country: Acclaimed Nigerian Writers on the Home, Identity, and Culture They Know (2021), pp. 61-71
• "Shut Up and Write" (11-17 January 2019). New Statesman, pp. 38-43
• "Lean on me" (5 April 2020). Facebook
• "A prizewinning novelist, a bad concussion and loss of memory during the coronavirus pandemic" (7 August 2020). The Washington Post
• "Notes on Grief" (10 September 2020). The New Yorker
• "The address President Buhari could have given" (23 October 2020). The Nigerian Guardian
• "Nigeria is murdering its citizens" (25 October 2020). The New York Times , p. 2
• "Legacy of Hope: review of A Promised Land by Barack Obama" (29 November 2020). The New York Times , p. 1
• "Dreaming As a Single Family: A Reflection on the Holy Father's Encyclicals" (9 July 2021). L'Osservatore Romano , p. 8
• "Why "Literary Lion Wole Soyinka Is My Inspiration" (26 September 2021). Times
• "What hat das Recht, den anderen auszustellen?" (29 September 2021). Die Zeit, p. 57
• "I Have Never Been So Proud of My Fellow Nigerians" (28 February 2023). The New York Times
• "My Country Is in a Fragile Place" (28 February 2023). The New York Times; published on 9 March 2023 by Time Africa
• "Nigeria's Hollow Democracy" (6 April 2023). The Atlantic
• "How I Became Black in America" (12 May 2023). The Atlantic
• "Preface to Pope Francis" (2023), published in Hands off Africa! by Pope Francis
• "The Story of My First Love" (13 February 2025). Vogue

• Allow Hope but Also Fear (14 June 2009). Kalamazoo: Commencement Speech; published in The World Is Waiting for You: Graduation Speeches to Live By from Activists, Writers, and Visionaries (2015) edited by Tara Grove and Isabel Ostrer, pp. 91-98^[14]
• The Danger of a Single Story (2009)^[15]
• To Instruct and Delight: A Case for Realist Literature (2012)^[16]
• We Should All Be Feminists (2012)^[17]
• Eastern Connecticut State University Commencement Address (2015)^[18]
• Wellesley College Commencement Address (2015)^[19]
• Williams College Commencement Address (2017)^[20]

Source:^[14]

• Quality Street (2011) by Maya Krishna Rao
• Half of a Yellow Sun (2013) by Biyi Bandele
• "Flawless" (2013) by Beyoncé includes excerpts from the talk "We Should All Be Feminists"