General News of Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-01-11Meet Nadia Owusu: The Ghanaian-born author on Obama's 2021 favourite books list
Former US president Barack Obama and Nadia Owusu
Obama releases annual list of best books, music and films
Nadia Owusu is celebrated for her book 'Aftershock'
She was born to Ghanaian dad and Armenian-American mother
On December 15, 2021, former United States of America President Barack Obama announced via social media, his annual list of favourite books, music and movies.
He captioned the post: "Over
Read full articlethe next few days, I'll share my annual list of favourite books, music, and movies.
"Art always sustains and nourishes the soul. But for me, music and storytelling felt especially urgent during this pandemic year. I'll start by sharing some of my favourite books of 2021."
In the list was one Nadia Owusu whose book "Aftershock" made Obama's list. GhanaWeb delved into who she is and what her book is about.
Nadia's personal website describes her parentage as "a Ghanaian and Armenian-American writer and urbanist."
She was born to an Armenian-American mother who abandoned her and a heroic Ghanaian father who died when she was thirteen, the O Magazine said in its review of her book.
Her paternal roots are traced back to the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi. Her father moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he met and married her mother.
The memoir is written against the usual narrative of "onward-and-upward" migration. Owusu recalls being taken on a tour as a child to see the sacred throne of the kings of the Ashanti people of Ghana, the UK Guardian's review added.
What her website says about herself and about her book
Her debut memoir, Aftershocks, was selected as the best book of 2021 by Time, Vogue, Esquire, The Guardian, NPR, and others. It was one of President Barack Obama’s favourite books of the year, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and a 2021 Goodreads Choice Award nominee.
In 2019, Nadia was the recipient of a Whiting Award. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Orion, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Literary Review, Slate, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, and others.
Nadia is the Director of Storytelling at Frontline Solutions, a Black-owned consulting firm that helps social-change organizations to define goals, execute plans, and evaluate impact.
She is a graduate of Pace University (BA) and Hunter College (MS). She earned her MFA in creative nonfiction at the Mountainview low-residency program where she currently teaches. She lives in Brooklyn.
