Yewande Omotoso Biography

Yewande Omotoso is a Nigerian-born but South African-based novel writer. She is also a designer and an architect. She was born by a popularly known Nigerian writer, Kole Omotoso. And also, she is a sister to a renowned writer and filmmaker, Akin Omotoso. Due to her writing prowess, she won the South African Literary Award for First-Time Published Author.

Full Name :

Yewande Omotoso

Date of Birth :

1980

Place of Birth :

Barbados

Highest Qualification :

M.Sc

Occupation :

Writer | Architect

Parent :

Professor Kole Omotoso

Relative :

Akin Omotoso (Brother)

Net Worth :

$800,000

Social Media Handles :

Instagram: omotosoyewande

Twitter: @yomotoso

Early Life & Education

Yewande Omotoso was born in Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados in North America, to the family of Professor Kole Omotoso. Shortly after her birth, her family migrated back to Nigeria, where she grew up. She moved back to South Africa with her father in 1992. She went to the University of Cape Town, where she studied architecture. Yewande went further to obtain a Master’s degree in Creative Writing at the same university.

Career

In 2011, Yewande Omotoso wrote her debut novel, titled Bom Boy. The novel gained wide attention and later won the South African Literary Award for First-Time Published Author in 2012. Also in that same year, Bom Boy was shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize and for the M-Net Literary Awards. The novel came as a runner-up in the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature.

In 2016, Yewande published her second novel, titled The Woman Next Door. This novel again gained wide attention and has received positive reviews from different novel readers and also organizations. In this novel, Yewande Omotoso uses explicit information and minor psychological insights into conflicted feelings, the artist’s eye, and the widow’s sorrow to depict the evolution of racial relations since the 1950s as well as the immigrant experience. Her voice is new and capable of conjuring both the brutality of South Africa’s past and the serenity of strolling up a kopje. This novel was shortlisted for both the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2017 and the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award.

Personal Life

She is the last child and the only daughter of Professor Kole Omotoso. She is also a sister to popular filmmaker, Akin Omotoso.

Works

Bom Boy
The Woman Next Door

Awards & Nominations

She won the South African Literary Award for First-Time Published Author.
She was shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize.
Yewande Omotoso was nominated for the 2021 M-Net Literary Awards.
She was also nominated for the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature.
She was among the longlisted 2017 Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Yewande won the 2014 Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia.
She was also the 2013 Norman Mailer Fellow and the recipient of a Miles Morland Scholarship in 2014.