Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor is a Nigerian-American fantasy writer. She was born in the United States to two Igbo (Nigerian) immigrant parents. She has a doctorate in English and is a professor at Chicago State University. She is inspired by Stephen King, Philip Pullman, Tove Jansson, Hayao Miyazaki and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

Her first novel, Zahrah the Windseeker, was published in 2005.

She mainly writes Urban Fantasy books that are based on Nigerian myths and culture. She also averts most of the Medieval European Fantasy tropes in her novels.

Bibilography:

 * Zahrah the Windseeker (2005) (as Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu)
 * The Shadow Speaker (2007) (as Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu)
 * Long Juju Man(2009)
 * Who Fears Death (2010)
 * Iridessa and the Fire-Bellied Dragon Frog (2011)
 * Akata Witch (2011)

Tropes common in her works:

 * Humans Are White: Averted, in fact most of her fantasy/sci-fi worlds either take place in Africa or are explicitly based on African mythology.
 * Neo Africa
 * Science Fantasy: The Shadow Speaker and Zahrah the Windseeker both are mixtures of sci-fi and fantasy, though Zahrah the Windseeker is more explicitly fantasy. Both take place in futuristic worlds that are very high tech (the former taking place in a future Earth and the latter taking place in another realm that is similar to Earth) that also have various people with magical powers.
 * Who Fears Death is a fantasy with magic and shapeshifting, but there are high-tech appliances such as personal computers present as well.
 * Shown Their Work