Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American fantasy author and creative writing teacher whose first book Children of Blood and Bone (2018) has been well received by readers and critics alike. She was raised in Chicago to parents who had recently arrived to the country from Nigeria in order to provide a better life for their future children. Her family faced financial difficulties while she was young as her father waited for his qualifications as a physician to transfer over to the United States. During this he worked as a taxi driver and her mother as a cleaning woman. Adeyemi notes that while growing up as a first generation American, her and her siblings were focused on fitting in with their peers and the country at large. They did not learn much about their Nigerian heritage, having never been exposed to it, and their parents made the decision not to teach them their native language. Adeyemi had always loved writing stories, and began to at the age of five. After this first one, though, she didn’t write anything featuring another black character until the age of 18. This was not only in a response of trying to fit in, but also to the lack of diversity present in literature for children and young adults, especially in the science fiction and fantasy genre. While attending Hinsdale Central High School, Adeyemi qualified for several academic achievements, including their Young Scholar Program in 2008, their Young Scholars scholarship in 2010 and 2011, and the Rani Sharm scholarship her senior year. She went on to receive an honors degree in English Literature from Harvard University, followed by a obtaining a fellowship that allowed her to travel to Brazil to study West African culture and mythology. It was during this time that Adeyemi fully embraced her Nigerian heritage and wished to learn as much about its culture as she could. She moved to California where, while working at a film production company, she decided to cut back her hours there to devote her efforts in writing a novel and found work as a creative writing coach in the meantime. She wrote her novel Children of Blood and Bone, a fantasy novel set in West Africa, as a way to honor her culture and provide a book featuring a black character that she would have been able to identify with while she was growing up in the hopes that future children will be able to do so. The book, the first of the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, won the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, was a finalist for the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and has spent over two years on the New York Times bestsellers list.

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