AKWAEKE is an artist based in liminal spaces. Born and raised in Nigeria, their work spans literature, music, film, and visual art. Their debut EP Stop Dying, You Were Very Expensive! was released on March 8, 2024 and their eighth book Little Rot was published on June 18, 2024 by Riverhead Books.
AKWAEKE moved to Brooklyn in the early 2010s as a poet and filmmaker, with their short film Ududeagu winning Best Short Experimental at the 2014 BlackStar Film Festival. They exploded onto the literary scene in 2018 with their debut novel Freshwater and went on to publish seven books in the next four years, including the instant NYT bestseller The Death Of Vivek Oji and National Book Award finalist Pet. Their romance novel You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty was a 2023 NAACP Image Award nominee and the screen rights were sold in a seven-figure deal to Amazon Studios with AKWAEKE executive producing alongside Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society.
Lauded as 'one of our greatest living writers' (Shondaland) and 'a once-in-a-generation voice' (Vulture), they are represented by Jacqueline Ko at The Wylie Agency, and by United Talent Agency.