Tomi Adeyemi

Tomi Adeyemi was born in 1993 and grew up in Maryland. She attended Harvard University, where she studied English literature with a focus on fiction writing, and later studied West African mythology and culture in Brazil before channeling those influences into her groundbreaking debut novel. Adeyemi has spoken about her motivation to write the Legacy of Orisha series as rooted in her desire to see Black characters — specifically characters drawn from West African cultural traditions — at the center of epic fantasy narratives, a tradition from which Black heroes have been largely absent in mainstream publishing despite the extraordinary richness of African mythology and storytelling heritage.

Adeyemi’s debut novel, Children of Blood and Bone (2018), is set in the fictional West African-inspired world of Orisha, where a young woman named Zelie fights to restore magic to a kingdom where it has been violently suppressed. The novel drew enthusiastic comparisons to Harry Potter and Black Panther and debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, making Adeyemi — at twenty-three — the youngest author ever to debut at the top of that list with a debut novel. The book sold in an enormous deal at auction and was immediately optioned for film, and its combination of lush fantasy world-building, political urgency, and emotionally charged characters resonated with readers around the world.

The novel’s engagement with themes of racism, state violence, and resistance gave it a timeliness and moral weight that elevated it above much of its genre competition. Adeyemi drew on real-world anxieties — particularly about police violence against Black communities in America — to give her fantasy epic an emotional and political resonance that readers felt immediately. The sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance (2019), continued the series while deepening its moral complexity, refusing to offer simple answers to questions of power and justice.

Adeyemi has become one of the most prominent advocates in publishing for greater diversity and representation in fantasy fiction, and her success has been cited as evidence that stories centered on characters of color can achieve both critical acclaim and massive commercial success. She has received numerous awards and honors, including the Waterstones Prize for Children’s Books. Tomi Adeyemi lives in San Diego and continues to write, her impact on the landscape of contemporary fantasy fiction already assured.