Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Sarah Ladipo Manyika is a Nigerian novelist who also writes short stories and essays that have been transl translated into several languages. She is a cultural critic and award-winning author of the bestseller In Dependence (2009) and multiple shortlisted Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun (2016).

Sarah was born and raised in Nigeria. She has also lived in Kenya, France, and England. Her father is Nigerian, and her mother is British. Sarah inherited her maiden name (Ladipo) from her father, who was born in Ibadan (South West Nigeria) in the late 1930s. Sarah's father met and married her mother in the UK in the late 1960s. She spent much of her childhood in Lagos and Jos in Plateau State.

As a teenager, Sarah lived for two years in Nairobi, Kenya, before her family moved to the UK. She studied at the Universities of Birmingham (UK), Bordeaux (France), and Berkeley (California).

She was married in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1994 and now divides her time between San Francisco (where she teaches literature at San Francisco State University), London, and Harare.

Sarah's first novel, In Dependence, was published by Legend Press in 2008. Her short story Mr. Wonder appeared in the 2008 collection Women Writing Zimbabwe.

Sarah's novel, In Dependence, was chosen by the UK's largest bookstore chain as its featured book for Black History Month.

Her second novel, Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, was shortlisted in 2016 for the Goldsmiths Prize (alongside books by Rachel Cusk, Deborah Levy, Eimear McBride, Mike McCormack, and Anakana Schofield).

Sarah Ladipo Manyika has contributed to Granta, The Guardian, the Washington Post, and Transfuge, among others.

In 2022 Manyika was named one of the 100 Most Influential Africans by New African magazine.

Photo credit: www.sarahladipomanyika.com