Yaa Gyasi knew she wanted to write novels at a young age. She was also praised for bringing something different to the conversation of diversity on the literary landscape. The author was commended for adding a new aspect to African-American literature. She certainly didn’t think ‘Homegoing’ would elicit such a large advance from her publisher. Her debut novel caught most people off guard, even Yaa Gyasi herself, mostly because she did not expect it to receive so much interest. So she went ahead and got her English Degree at Stanford and MFA at the Iowa Writer’s workshop. The victories validated the desire Yaa had to pursue writing as a career. She participated in competitions for young writers and she even won a couple of them. And it came as no surprise when she took to writing with fervor. Through literature, Yaa Gyasi learned to escape the complexities of her world. She got on quite well with her siblings because they were all living the same experience as young Ghanaians in the U.S.

Probably because of her status as an African immigrant, the author was a very shy child. Yaa Gyasi initially struggled with life in Alabama. They lived in Illinois for a while before moving to Tennessee and finally settling in Huntsville, Alabama. Her father’s work at Ohio State University (where he was completing his Ph.D.) saw the family move to the United States two years after Yaa’s birth. Yaa Gyasi was born in 1989 in Mampong, Ghana to a University of Alabama (Huntsville) French professor by the names of Kwaku Gyasi, and a nurse. Yaa Gyasi is an American author of Ghanaian descent who is best known for ‘Homegoing’, her debut novel which not only won numerous awards following its release but it also earned the author a seven-figure book deal.

Yaagyasi