Taiye Selasi

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Taiye Selasi
Taiye Selasi
Taiye Selasi
Born
Taiye Tuakli

London, United Kingdom
OccupationNovelist
EducationYale University (BA)
Nuffield College, Oxford (Master of Philosophy)
Period2005–present
Literary movementRealism, Drama
Notable worksGhana Must Go (2013)
Website
Taiye Selasi on X

Taiye Selasi is a British-American author and filmmaker best known for her bestselling novel and viral TED Talk.

Early life and education

Taiye Selasi was born in London, England, and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, the elder of twin daughters of Dr. Ladé Wosornu, a Ghanaian surgeon and poet, and Dr. Juliette Tuakli, a Nigerian paediatrician renown for her advocacy work.[1] [2] Selasi graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in American Studies from Yale University, before earning her MPhil in International Relations from University of Oxford.[3][4]

Career

Author

As an author, Selasi is best known for “Firstborn Immigrant Daughter,” published in The New Yorker's Fiction Issue in 2026, and Ghana Must Go, published by Penguin in 2013.[5]

In 2005, while completing her graduate studies at Oxford, Selasi met her mentor, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison.[6] In 2006 Morrison gave Selasi a one-year deadline. To meet it, Selasi wrote "The Sex Lives of African Girls," published by Granta in 2011 and selected for The Best American Short Stories in 2012.[7] The next year Selasi was named to Granta's once-in-a-decade list of Best Young British Novelists.[8] In 2014 she was chosen for Africa39, as one of “39 exceptional African writers under 40.”[9]

In 2013 literary titan Ann Godoff, founder and editor-in-chief of Penguin Press, published Selasi's debut, the New York Times bestseller Ghana Must Go. Selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by both The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, the novel has been translated into over 20 languages.[10][11][12][13][14]

In 2026 Selasi co-founded Sechat, an international writers retreat for women, named after the Egyptian goddess of writing.[15]

Public Speaker

As an essayist and public speaker, Selasi is best known for coining two terms: Afropolitan and multilocal.

In 2005 The LIP Magazine published Selasi's now-seminal essay "Bye-Bye, Babar (Or: What is an Afropolitan?)".[16] The first person ever to publish on the subject, Selasi sparked a global discourse on Afropolitan identity, paving the way for scholars such as Simon Gikandi and Achille Mbembe to develop the term into a widely known ideology.[17]

In 2015, in her viral TED Talk, Selasi coined 'multi-local' to describe a second contemporary identity.[18] A local of New York, Lisbon, Rome, and Accra, Selasi argues that human beings "come from" experiences rather than countries; that our experiences are shaped by “Three Rs” (relationships, rituals, restrictions) related to where we live; and that we err in privileging a fiction (the state) over the nuanced reality of lived experience.[19][20]

Producer

In 2020, when Netflix greenlit her first series, Selasi founded Cocoa Content, a creative production company backed by French-American media investor Jérôme Levy.[21] In collaboration with renown Hollywood producers like Debra Martin Chase, Nicholas Weinstock, and Pauline Fischer (former head of International Films at Netflix), Cocoa Content is developing projects in Italy, Portugal, Ghana, and beyond.[22]

Personal Life

Selasi's given name means first twin in her mother's native Yoruba. Selasi's twin, Dr. Yetsa Tuakli, is a celebrated physiatrist. The first African member of the International Paralympic Committee, Tuakli competed in the long jump for Ghana's national team and now runs Sports Equity Lab at Stanford University.[23][24]

Works

Novels

Children's books

  • Anansi and the Golden Pot (2022)

Short stories

  • "The Sex Lives of African Girls,” GRANTA (2011)[26]
  • "Driver,” GRANTA (2013)[27]
  • "Aliens of Extraordinary Ability,” TALE OF TWO CITIES (2014) [28]
  • "Brunhilda in Love,” SEX AND DEATH (2021)[29]
  • “Betwixt and Betwin,” GRANTA (2022)[30]
  • "Firstborn Immigrant Daughter,” THE NEW YORKER (2026)[31]

References

  1. "A Master of Arts and Science: Professor Ladé Wosornu Celebrated At 88". Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. 3 April 2025. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  2. "Dr. Juliette Tuakli". Mercy Ships Africa. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  3. Selasi, Taiye (23 October 2014). "The loving spoonful". The Economist.
  4. "Center for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora - Artist-in-Residence February 2020: Taiye Selasi". 9 October 2019.
  5. Selasi, Taiye (31 May 2026). "Firstborn Immigrant Daughter". The New Yorker. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  6. Cohen, Stefanie (28 February 2013). "Growing Up With a Panther Mom". The Wall Street Journal.
  7. Igarashi, Yuka (10 June 2011). "Taiye Selasi | Interview". Granta.
  8. Igarashi, Yuka (10 June 2011). "Taiye Selasi: Interview". Granta. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  9. "Africa39". Hay Festival. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  10. "A singular voice", The Economist, 16 March 2013.
  11. Sacks, Sam (1 March 2013). "An Auspicious How-Do-You-Do". The Wall Street Journal.
  12. Fischer, Molly (14 June 2010). "Penguin Press Buys First Novel with Salman and Toni's Seal of Approval". New York Observer. Archived from the original on 15 June 2010.
  13. "The WSJ Best Fiction of 2013". The Wall Street Journal. 13 December 2013.
  14. "Books of the year: Torrents of words", The Economist, 5 December 2013.
  15. "Sechat — Writing Retreat in Portugal". Sechat. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  16. Selasi, Taiye (3 March 2005). "Bye-Bye, Babar". The LIP Magazine.
  17. Gehrmann, Susanne (11 November 2015). "Cosmopolitanism with African roots. Afropolitanism's ambivalent mobilities". Journal of African Cultural Studies. 28: 61–72. doi:10.1080/13696815.2015.1112770. S2CID 146791639.
  18. Selasi, Taiye (October 2014). "Don't ask where I'm from, ask where I'm a local". TED. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  19. "Taiye Selasi: How Do The Places We Call Home Inform Our Identities?". TED Radio Hour. NPR. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  20. "Don't ask where I'm from, ask where I'm a local". TED | TEDGlobal 2014. 29 September 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  21. White, Peter (11 October 2023). "Lagos-Set Drama 'Victoria Island' In The Works From Taiye Selasi, Nicholas Weinstock & Fremantle". Deadline. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  22. "Taiye Selasi Announces New TV Production Company That Will Be the Golden Age of Television Meets the African Silver Screen". brittlepaper.com. 15 July 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  23. "Sports Equity Lab". Sports Equity Lab. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  24. name="Elle magazine profile">Vitzthum, Virginia (15 March 2013). "The Fascinator: Taiye Selasi". ELLE. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  25. Cox Westmaas, Juanita (23 April 2013). "Taiye Selasi's 'Ghana Must Go': A Reader's Response". www.thenewblackmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  26. Whittington, Bella (17 December 2012). "'The Sex Lives of African Girls' by Taiye Selasi". www.litro.co.uk. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  27. "Biography Of Taiye Selasi". Media Nigeria. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  28. Freeman, John (8 September 2015). Tales of Two Cities: Stories of Inequality in a Divided New York. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780143128304.
  29. Hall, Sarah; Hobbs, Peter (3 August 2017). Sex & Death: Stories. Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571322442.
  30. Selasi, Taiye (17 November 2022). "Betwixt and Betwin". Granta. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  31. Selasi, Taiye (8 June 2026). "Firstborn Immigrant Daughter". The New Yorker. Retrieved 12 June 2026.