Chibundu Onuzo started writing her first book aged 17, got an agent at 18, became the youngest woman to sign to publisher Faber & Faber at 19, and released her debut novel, The Spider King's Daughter at 21.
The young Nigerian did all that while studying for a history degree at Kings College London.
Writing in the Guardian, about what terrorist organisation Boko Haram has done to her her country, she said “as elated as I am over the overdue coverage this issue is finally receiving, I cannot help but wonder what comes next. When the girls are released, will they be returned to a country where they are not at risk of being abducted again?”
When she submitted the book to a publisher, there was only 33 pages, but they were interested in it. “It was such huge validation,” she tells Nine to Noon’s Kathryn Ryan. “Oh my gosh, somebody read my work and actually wants to read on. And then…reality set in that there wasn’t any more.”
Much of Nigerian literature deals with the aftermath of conflict, but she says the Nigeria people see on the news is not the Nigeria she grew up in. “I was fortunate to have a very privileged, sheltered childhood.”
