Sefi Atta

Sefi Atta (born in January 1964) is a Nigerian-American novelist, short-story writer, playwright and screenwriter. Her books have been translated into many languages, her radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC, and her stage plays have been performed internationally.

Awards she has received include the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

Biography

Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in January 1964, to a family of five children. Her father Abdul-Aziz Atta was the Secretary to Federal Government and Head of the Civil Service until his death in 1972, and she was raised by her mother Iyabo Atta.

She attended Queen's College, Lagos, and Millfield School in England. In 1985, she graduated with a B.A. degree from Birmingham University. She qualified as a chartered accountant in England and as CPA in the United States, where she migrated in 1994. She earned an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2001.

She is married to Gboyega Ransome-Kuti, a medical doctor, and son of Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, and they have one child, named Temi.

Career

Atta graduated from the creative writing program at Antioch University in Los Angeles. Her short stories have appeared in literary journals such as The Los Angeles Review, Mississippi Review and World Literature Today. She has also written essays, and her articles on Lagos and Nigeria have appeared in publications such as Time and Libération. Her books have been translated into several languages. Her first novel, Everything Good Will Come, won the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2006. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.

Atta's Lagos-based production company Atta Girl supports Care to Read, a programme she initiated to earn funds for legitimate charities through staged readings.

Awards and recognition

2002: Macmillan Writers Prize For Africa, shortlist

2002: BBC African Performance, 2nd Prize

2002: Zoetrope Short Fiction Contest, 3rd Prize

2003: Red Hen Press Short Story Award, 1st prize

2003: Glimmer Train′s Very Short Fiction Award, finalist

2004: BBC African Performance, 2nd Prize

2005: PEN International David TK Wong Prize, 1st Prize

2006: Caine Prize for African Writing, shortlist

2006: Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa

2009: Noma Award for Publishing in Africa

2009: The American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition, quarter-finalist

2019: WeScreenPlay Diverse Voices Lab, finalist

2019: The American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition, finalist

2021: The National Playwrights Conference, semifinalist

Visiting Writer

2024: Jackson State University

2006: University of Southern Mississippi

2008: Northwestern University

2010: École Normale Supérieure de Lyon

Other News

Atta was on the jury for the 2010 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and a judge for the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing.

A critical study of her works, Writing Contemporary Nigeria: How Sefi Atta Illuminates African Culture and Tradition, edited by Professor Walter P. Collins, III, was published by Cambria Press in 2015.

In November 2025, she participated in the Nobel Symposium in Literature on the topic Retrieving Pasts, Imagining Futures: Creative Forms in African Writing, hosted by the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa.