Artist-in-Residence February 2020: Taiye Selasi

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Taiye Selasi

Taiye Selasi is a renowned author who is also a well-versed photographer, producer and screenplay writer. Taiye was born on 2nd Nov, 1979 in London and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. Though Taiye’s parents were both doctors by profession, Taiye’s father had immense interest in literature and has published much poetry.

Taiye graduated in American Studies from Yale and MPhil in Industrial Relations from Nuffield College, Oxford. The story named, ‘The Sex Lives of African Girls’ that Taiye wrote within a timeframe of one year appeared in Best American Short Stories 2012 and brought Taiye to limelight.

Another book written by Taiye named, ‘Ghana Must Go’ was sold in 22 countries and has been selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by the Wall Street Journal and The Economist.

Taiye’s extraordinary writing skill has made her reach great heights. In 2013, Taiye was selected as one of Grant’s 20 Best Young British Writers and in 2014 she was named to the Hays Festivals Africa 39 list of 39 sub-saharan African writers.

Partnering with architect David Adjaye, Taiye created the Gwangju River Reading Room, an open air library erected in 2013 as part of the Gwangju Biennale’s Folly II. She was also the executive producer of Afripedia, a documentary series about urban African creatives. In the year 2015, she led a writer seminar at the annual Iceland Writers Retreat in Iceland.

As a person, Taiye Selasi enjoys travelling a lot and her desire is to visit 100 countries before reaching 50 years.

flyer of author Taiye Selasi