We are truly delighted to welcome Nnedi Okorafor to today’s Role Model Interview at FemalExperts. With her new novel, the award-winning bestselling author has once again created a work that transcends genre boundaries while addressing profound social questions with remarkable literary power.
In Death of the Author, she tells the story of Zelu, a Nigerian-American writer who uses a wheelchair and, in the midst of a personal crisis, begins writing a science fiction manuscript that unexpectedly catapults her to fame.
Yet the novel is far more than a story about success. It is a reflection on identity, belonging, the body, expectations, and the ways in which women claim their place in a world that often seeks to define them.
Nnedi Okorafor, whose works such as Binti and Who Fears Death became international bestsellers, has received numerous awards for her writing, including the NAACP Image Award in the category Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction. Her latest novel was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel, one of the most prestigious honors in speculative fiction.
1. Ms. Okorafor, your novel is titled Death of the Author, yet it tells the story of a woman who finds her voice. Is that a contradiction, or is it the very essence of the book?
No. The novel is complex and deeper than surface interpretations. The title is inspired by the French literary scholar Roland Barthes’s essay “The Death of the Author,” which explores separating the author from their work. The novel is in conversation with this idea throughout. There are also several deaths in the book, both metaphorical and literal. The title operates on multiple levels and isn’t concerned with avoiding contradiction.
2. Your protagonist Zelu is challenging, angry, intelligent, and uncompromising. She is not a “traditional” heroine. Why was it important to you to portray a woman who is not concerned with being likable?
I wouldn’t call her “angry.” That’s reductive. She’s passionate and engages with her world through a full spectrum of emotion, from awe to rage to joy to curiosity. She’s as multidimensional as the book itself, and I know her well. Women don’t have to be likable, yet they are often expected to be. “Likability” is a form of control, a way of keeping women in line instead of allowing them to simply be who they are. Women are too often expected to please others and sacrifice their needs, joys, and futures to fit into society. Likability packages all of that into an unassuming perfumed box. Storytelling is a powerful way to step outside that control and show what women are capable of when they fully embrace themselves.
3. Zelu has used a wheelchair since a childhood accident. Your novel therefore raises questions not only about gender, but also about the body and visibility. What role does this aspect play for you as an author?
Zelu is paraplegic. That’s why she uses a wheelchair. I wrote a brief memoir called BROKEN PLACES & OUTER SPACES. It’s about how I became a writer after being a competitive athlete who woke from spinal surgery unexpectedly paralyzed from the waist down. I turned to storytelling to save my sanity. That experience is why I’m a writer. Everything else grew from it.
4. In the novel, Zelu writes a story within the story titled Rusted Robots, about artificial intelligences after the extinction of humanity. What particularly fascinated you about this layered narrative structure?
Nothing in particular. It’s how the story demanded to be told. The structure of the book happened organically. I don’t outline or write linearly. I sit down and write, and what comes, comes. For a long time, I thought I was writing two separate novels at once. None of the narrative overlap was planned. It simply emerged. It was a huge surprise to me.
5. Many readers see Zelu as a powerful feminist character. Would you say that your novel is intentionally a contribution to female empowerment?
No. Zelu is who she is. As I said, I don’t know what I’ll write until I write it. I wasn’t thinking, “Let me write a feminist or womanist character to make a specific point.” I wrote her, and that’s how she emerged. The labels come from readers. As you can see, I haven’t applied any labels in this interview. Labels don’t guide me. The story, the world, and the characters do.
6. A central theme of the novel is belonging. Zelu is claimed by different communities — as a woman, as a Black person, as an author, and as a person with a disability. Is this also a critique of societal expectations?
Some readers have interpreted it that way, yes.
7. You have been writing about strong female characters, identity, and self-determination for many years. Was there a moment in your own life when you felt: This is when I truly began to write my own story?
I’ve been writing My Story since I started writing. This novel and BROKEN PLACES & OUTER SPACES are my most naked works.
8. When you look back at your younger self, what message would you give to the young woman who is just beginning to write, to doubt, and to search for her place in the world?
Honestly, my younger self did everything she needed to do. She faced what she needed to face and pushed back where she needed to push back. I have no advice for my younger self; she didn’t/doesn’t need any. I only have deep admiration.
9. Many readers see you not only as an author, but also as a role model. How do you personally navigate that responsibility?
I try to be the most authentic version of myself I can be. I keep learning, listening, standing tall, being honest and moving forward.
10. Without revealing too much, if readers were to take away just one insight after finishing your novel, what would you hope it would be?
That stories are one of humanity’s most powerful inventions. Stories can heal or destroy. It’s up to us to decide what we do with that power.
Thank you, Ms. Okorafor, for this conversation, for your openness, and for stories that encourage women to make their perspectives visible, to speak openly about their doubts, and to shape their futures with courage and determination.
Zelu’s story reminds us that empowerment rarely begins with grand gestures. More often, it begins quietly with a single sentence, a single thought, and the decision to stop living according to others’ expectations and to start listening to one’s own voice.
Über die Autorin
Kinga Bartczak berät, coacht und schreibt zu Female Empowerment, neuer Arbeitskultur, Organisationsentwicklung systemischen Coaching und Personal Branding.
Zudem ist sie Geschäftsführerin der UnternehmerRebellen GmbH und Herausgeberin des FemalExperts Magazins.
