Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi Books In Order

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi is a successful published author known for her book Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions.

She was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, where she grew up. She was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Studzinski Award. Her stories have been seen by many and have been featured in New Writing from Africa 2009 and Ploughshares. Her stories were also mentioned in The Best American Short Stories 2018.

Omolola’s poetry has also been featured in the Massachusetts Review, the Indiana Review, and Wasafiri. She has bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in computer science. She is the Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (also known as the CDU) in south Los Angeles.

The author is also the Professor and Chair of Preventive and Social Medicine at CDU. There she teaches and does research on using biomedical informatics to cut back on health disparities. This field is somewhat new and very exciting. Biomedical informatics studies how you can acquire, store, communicate, and transform biomedical data, information, and knowledge to come up with insights that could be acted on to make human health better.

She is also an elected Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. She conducts research that takes a closer look at how artificial intelligence and tele-health might be used to make healthcare better in settings that are typically medically under-served and under-resourced.

Her debut book is a collection of short stories that are all linked. It was picked as an Editors Choice by the New York Times. It also was selected to be part of The New Yorker’s list of the ‘Best Books of 2022 So Far’. It was also a Los Angeles Public Library selection to be part of the ‘Best of 2022: Fiction’ and was selected in October of 2022 for Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club with Literati.

Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: Four Nigerian Women Navigate Female Friendship, Family Drama, and the Immigrant Journey Home is a 2022 book by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi. This is the American debut for this author and it is a book that fans of great literary writing will not want to miss out on.

This book explores the past, present, and potential future of her homeland as experienced by the reader through the interconnected stories that feature four women who travel the globe and are effectively fearless and bold in their exploration of the world.

This book takes place in America as well as Nigeria. It is a look into a world that many other people may not even know exists, taking a closer examination of some accomplished Nigerian women while also shining a light on the various challenges that they are dealing with and the various risks that they take on so that they can manage and control their destinies.

Nonso, Remi, Aisha and Solape are all girls who grow up together at an all girls boarding school. There they meet each other and in the process forge a sisterhood so strong that there is nearly nothing in the world that could break it. Their sisterhood grows while the girls also deal with a school rebellion. The uprising will have consequences that echo throughout their lives forever.

These young women were the children of families that did very well for themselves and have grown up wanting to be independent and believe that attending university and getting an education is their right. They are ambitious and full of hope, something that they have inherited from those who came before.

As the ladies leave school and being adolescents behind them, the women have to deal with all of the limitations and the unexpected possibilities that being adults has to offer them. They also are growing up, learning more about the uncertainties of the world inside of Nigeria and outside of it.

While taking a trip to Ghana, Nonso’s eyes are opened to the impact that the transatlantic slave trade has had. At the same time, she falls for an African American and ends up making a completely new life and home for herself in the United States.

Remi ends up meeting Segun, a man from Yonkers with Nigerian descent. He is charming and dynamic, and his own struggles and support lends her the strength that she needs to take on painful wounds from her family.

Then there is Aisha, who has a guilt so great that it is haunting her. It is also influencing the decisions that she makes when it comes to her career and her relationship. When she sees the opportunity to save the life of her son through a sacrifice of her own, it could be the chance that she needs to redefine her own life at the same time.

The result is an incredible book as Jollof Rice is a portrait of many different lives that have been shaped by friendship, sorrow, and hope. The women have to deal with the present and the idea that going forward in time may mean that you are moving forward– but it’s not progress in and of itself. Read this incredible book to see what Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi has to say!