Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo is a Nigerian author and educator, whose published work includes novels, poetry, short stories, books for children, essays and journalism. She is the winner of several awards, including the Nigeria Prize for Literature.

Biography

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo was born and raised in Eastern Nigeria, but now lives in Lagos. She is the first child of Joshua and Christiana Adimora and has five siblings. Raised partially in a rural environment and partially in the city, she combines these two factors, as background and setting for her children's stories and adult fiction. Though born in Eastern Nigeria, she has lived in different parts of the country – East, North and West. She has travelled extensively in Africa, Europe and in the USA.

She obtained her Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master's (MA) degrees in English from the University of Lagos and her Ph.D. from University of Ibadan, in Nigeria. She also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) from University of Lagos.

A lecturer, writer, novelist, critic, essayist, journalist, and administrator, she was appointed a professor of English at University of Lagos in 1999. She has taught in this university, in the Department of English, since 1981. She headed the English Department in 1997 and 1998, from 2002 to 2005, and 2008–2009.

In September 2015, she relocated to Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo, Ebonyi State, in South-East Nigeria, where she has continued to teach students and mentor younger lecturers.

She is married to Professor Chris Ezeigbo and they have three children.

Professional experience

She taught in secondary schools and a teachers college before becoming a university lecturer. She was a member of the editorial board of two newspapers in Lagos: The Independent (1992–1995) and The Post Express (1997–1999). While with those two newspapers, she wrote editorials, feature articles and maintained regular columns. She has held administrative posts at the University of Lagos as sub-dean of the Faculty of Arts for two years (1992–1994) and as acting head of English Department in 1997/98. She has also been in hall administration in the university as assistant hall warden in Moremi Hall and Moremi Annexe from 1981 to 1984; hall mistress of Madam Tinubu Hall from 1994 to 1996, hall mistress of Amina Hall from 1996 to 1997.

She was the national treasurer of the Association of Nigerian Authors from 1995 to 1997, vice president of Women Writers of Nigeria (WRITA) from 1998 to 2000. She went on to become the first vice-president of PEN Nigeria and the financial secretary of WRITA National.

Research supervision

Undergraduate Level: Supervised more than 160 final-year undergraduate projects at Unilag (B.A. (Hons.), 1986–2015). And, so far, 12 projects at Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (2015–2022).

Postgraduate (Masters): Supervised more than 100 M.A. dissertations between 1986 and 2015 at Unilag.

Postgraduate (Ph.D.): Under her supervision 12 candidates successfully completed their PhD and graduated between 2003 and 2018 at Unilag. currently supervising a doctoral (PhD) student at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State.

Postgraduate Diploma (PGD): Supervised six students in the Postgraduate Diploma programme at the University of Lagos Between 2012 and 2014.

External examination/professional assessment

She has served as external examiner/assessor to various universities (15) in the country:

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife

University of Benin

University of Calabar

University of Jos

University of Ilorin

Abia State University

Rivers State University of Science & Technology

Redeemer's University (RUN), Mowe, Ogun State

Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State

University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Lagos State University (LASU)

Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State

University of Ibadan

Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, Ogun State

American University of Nigeria, Yola, Adamawa State

University of Lagos (2019).

Reading tours

She has toured many countries and in each of them she has read from her works.

In October/November, 1993, she toured six British cities – London, Bristol, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham – and gave readings from her first collection of short stories, Rhythms of Life, Stories of Modern Nigeria. The tour was organized by Karnak House (her London publisher). In May 1998, she was a guest of the Centre for African Studies of the University of Edinburgh at a Literary Retreat at the Burn, in Scotland. She also read from her works at Evangelische Akademie, in Bad Boll, Germany, in October 2000 and also at Humboldt University in Berlin, in May 2002. She participated in "Time of the Writer Festival" in April 2002, at the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, in South Africa. She was at the 2002 Convention of International PEN held in Macedonia. she presented a paper at the Indaba at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare from 25 July to 2 August 2003.

Membership

She is a member of many academic associations such as the Literary Society of Nigeria, Modern Languages Association of Nigeria. She is an active member of writers' organizations including International PEN, PEN Nigeria, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and the Women Writers Association of Nigeria (WRITA).

She is the first vice-president of PEN Nigeria. She served as the National Treasurer of ANA from 1995 to 1997 and the first vice president of Women Writers' Association of Nigeria. She is currently the financial secretary of WRITA.

Finished publications

Apart from publishing more than 60 academic papers in local and international journals and as chapters in books and having her short stories appear in five anthologies, Adimora-Ezeigbo has published 48 books.

She has published 23 books for children (more are in the press), has been a children's Sunday School teacher and regularly gives talks to children in schools and to women's clubs on topics such as culture and youth development in Nigeria, child upbringing and the education of the girl-child, etc.