Author Q&A with Tomi Adeyemi

Tell us about your most recent book and how you came to write/illustrate it.

My debut novel is Children of Blood and Bone and it comes out on March 6th, 2018. From a creative standpoint, I came to write it by discovering the orisha—West African deities—through a stroke of luck while on a fellowship in Brazil. This gave me the idea for CBB after I discovered a digital painting two years later that gave me the inspiration for the characters and events in the story. From a professional standpoint, I came to write CBB after the first book I tried to get published went nowhere, but solidified for me that I would be most happy writing full-time. Additionally, I was heavily influenced by the tragedy of police brutality and felt compelled to say something about it through my work.

Do you think of yourself as a diverse author/illustrator?

Yes because I’m black and Nigerian-American, and my diverse background has a big impact on what I write, why I write, and the way I write.

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