Bio
Helen Olajumoke Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria in 1984 and moved to Britain when she was four. She wrote her debut novel The Icarus Girl (2005) at seventeen while studying for her A-levels. Two plays, Juniper’s Whitening and Victimese (2005) soon followed, as well as a second novel, The Opposite House (2007), all of which she wrote while studying Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Her third novel, White Is for Witching or Pie-Kah (2009), won the 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. Mr. Fox (2011), which won the 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, offers a feminist revision of the Bluebeard myth. Her fifth bestselling novel, Boy, Snow, Bird (2014), is a racial narrative loosely based on Snow White. Her short story collection What Is Yours Is Not Yours (2016) won the PEN Open Book Award. In 2018 Oyeyemi was a judge for the International Booker Prize. Two of her other novels are Gingerbread (2019), which assigns fantasy-like aspects to gingerbread, and Peaces (2021) which revolves around a young couple on a journey with a mongoose on a mysterious train. At the start of 2024, the writer publisher her most recent novel, titled Parasol Against the Axe, a narrative which borders the line between illusion and disillusion during a weekend in Prague. Oyeyemi retells fairy tales in her novels, with a penchant for bewilderment. She currently lives in Prague.
Image source: http://www.writersfestival.org
Selected Prizes and Nominations
• 2009 Shirley Jackson Award
• 2009 Dublin Literary Award
• 2010 Somerset Maugham Award
• 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
• 2013 Granta’s Best Young British Novelists
• 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
• 2016 PEN Open Book Award
• 2016 Dublin Literary Award
• 2017 BBC National Short Story Award
• 2022 Goldsmiths Prize
Bibliography
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Brown, Helen. “A Writer’s Life: Helen Oyeyemi.” The Daily Telegraph, 9 Jan. 2005.
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Clark, Alex. “Helen Oyeyemi Plays with Myth and Fairytale.” Review of Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Guardian, 22 Mar. 2014. Web.
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Clark, Nick. “Bluebeard’s Muse.” Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Cascadia Subduction Zone, Jan 2012. Web. 1 June 2015.
Collins, Walter P., ed. Emerging African Voices. A Study of Contemporary African Literature. New York: Cambria Press, 2010. Print.
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—."Diaspora, gender and identity: Twinning in three diasporic novels." English Academy Review, vol. 25, no. 1, 2008, pp. 51-65.
—. “The Middle Passage of the Gods and the New Diaspora: Helen Oyeyemi’s The Opposite House.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 40, no. 4 (2009): pp. 108-121.
Cousins, Helen. “Unplaced/Invaded: Multiculturalism in Helen Oyeyemi’s The Opposite House.” Postcolonial Text, vol. 7, no. 3 (2012): pp. 1-16.
—. “Helen Oyeyemi and the Yoruba Gothic: White Is for Witching.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 47, no. 1 (2012): pp. 47-58.
Crispin, Jessa. “Sex, Love and Murder in Mr. Fox.” Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. Kirkus Reviews, 4 Oct 2011. Web. 2 April 2013.
Cuder-Dominguez, Pilar. “Double Consciousness in the Work of Helen Oyeyemi and Diana Evans.” 20.3 (2009): 277-286.
Daniel, Lucy. Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. Telegraph, 22 June 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8579196/Mr-Fox-by-…. Accessed June 2015.
Derks, Jackielee. “Snow White Remixed: Confronting Aesthetic Obsession and Race in Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird.” Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 2017, vol.7, no. 2-3, pp. 139- 148.
Diamond, Jason. “Flavorwire Interview: Boy, Snow, Bird Author Helen Oyeyemi on Fairy Tales and Feminists with Flawless Prose,” Flavorwire, 7 Mar 2014, https://www.flavorwire.com/443678/flavorwire-interview-boy-snow-bird-au…. Accessed 9 July 2020.
Driscoll, Molly. “Helen Oyeyemi Takes on a New Fairytale in Boy, Snow, Bird: Boy, Snow, Bird Is a Take On the Snow White Legend.” The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Mar. 2014, www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0314/Helen-Oyeyemi-takes…. Accessed 9 July 2020.
Downer, Lesley. “The Playdate From Hell.” Rev. of The Icarus Girl, by Helen Oyeyemi. New York Times, 17 July 2005. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Fried, Kerry. “A Writer Spars with his Muse.” Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. Washington Post, 25 Oct 2011. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Guerrero, Paula Barba. “Fairy-Tale Reflections: Space and Women Host(age)s in Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird.” Contemporary Fairy-Tale Magic: Subverting Gender and Genre, edited by Lydia Brugué and Auba Llompart. Rodopi, 2020, pp. 32-43.
Guidarini, Lisa. Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. BluesTalking, 3 July 2007. Web. 7 Feb. 2013.
Gunning, Dave. “Dissociation, Spirit Possession, and the Languages of Trauma in Some Recent African-British Novels.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 46, no. 4, 2015, pp. 119–32, https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.46.4.119. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.
Harris Satkunananthan, Anita. "Mise en Abyme and Katabasis: Helen Oyeyemi’s and Tanith Lee’s Reimaginings of 'Snow White'." Marvels & Tales, vol. 34, no. 2, 2021. Digital Commons, URL: digitalcommons.wayne.edu/marvels/vol34/iss2/3.
Harris Satkunananthan, Anita. "Otherworlds, Doubles, Houses: Helen Oyeyemi's ‘The Opposite House and White Is for Witching." Gema Online Journal of Language Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, 2018. GEMA, doi: 10.17576/gema-2018-1804-13.
Harris Satkunananthan, Anita. "Textual Transgressions and Consuming the Self in the Fiction of Helen Oyeyemi and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie." Hecate, vol. 37, no. 2, 2011, pp. 41-69.
Harrison, Niall. Rev. of The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi. Strange Horizons 31 July 2007. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Harrison, Niall. “Throwing Voices and Observing Transformations: An Interview with Helen Oyeyemi by Nial Harrison.” Strange Horizons, 2013, www.trangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/throwing-voices-and-observi…. Accessed 9 July 2020.
“Helen Oyeyemi’s Twisted Fairy Tales.” France 24, 22 Nov. 2011. Radio.
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Hewett, Heather. “Between Worlds.” Washington Post, 3 July 2005. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Hoggard, Liz. “Helen Oyeyemi: 'I'm interested in the way women disappoint one another'” The Guardian, 2 Mar. 2014. Web. 1 June 2015.
Jays, David. “That’s the Spirit.” The Guardian, 20 May 2007. Accessed 7 Sept. 2012.
Jordan, Justine. Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Guardian, 11 June 2011. Web. 7 Sept 2012.
Kodjo-Grandvaux, Séverine. “Livres… Et il est comment le dernier: Helen Oyeyemi.” Jeune afrique 16 May 2013. Accessed 7 Sept. 2012.
Kurashige, Megan. “A Conversation with Helen Oyeyemi.” Fantasy Matters, 27 Sept 2011. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Kyzer, Larissa. “A Lady Killer and His Unamused Muse.” Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Second Pass, 11 Nov 2011. Accessed 2 April 2013.
Lamprecht, Ingrid. Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. Socialist Review, June 2007. Accessed 7 Sept. 2012.
Lau, Kimberly J. “Snow White and the Trickster: Race and Genre in Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird.’" Western Folklore, vol. 75, no. 3-4, 2016, pp. 371-396.
Lee, Felicia R. “Conjuring an Imaginary Friend in the Search for an Authentic Self.” New York Times, 21 June 2005. Accessed 7 Sept. 2012.
Leetsch, Jennifer. “Longing Elsewhere: Helen Oyeyemi.” Love and Space in Contemporary African Diasporic Women’s Writing: Making Love, Making Worlds, 2021, pp. 137-198.
Machell, Ben. “Helen Oyeyemi: yet Another Brilliant Outing.” Rev. of White Is for Whitching, by Helen Oyeyemi. Weekly Trust, 20 Nov. 2010. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Mafe, Diana Adesola. “Ghostly Girls in the ‘Eerie Bush’: Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl as Postcolonial Female Gothic Fiction.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 43, no. 3, 2012: pp. 21-35. Web. 2 Nov. 2012.
Masters, Alexandra. “Helen Oyeyemi. Free Spirit.” New Books Magazine, 3 June 2011. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Mayer, Andre. “Memory Game.” Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. Toronto Life, 23 Oct. 2007. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
McClements, Melissa. Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. Financial Times, 3 June 2011. Web. 7 Sept. 2012. Mellas, Tessa. Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. Short Review n.d. Web. 1 June 2015.
McDowell, Robert. “Stories for Our Sorrows.” The Hudson Review, vol. 72, no. 1, 2019, pp. 139–45. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26801477. Web. 14 Feb. 2023.
Michel, Martin. Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. National Public Radio, 26 June 2007. Web. 7 Sept.2012.
Moolla, F. Fiona. “Peace, Love, World: Helen Oyeyemi’s Peace Piece in Peaces.” The Routledge Handbook of the New African Diasporic Literature, Routledge, 2024, pp. 530-540.
“Mr. Fox.” Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. Kirkus Reviews, vol. 79, no. 17, 2011: pp. 1522-1523. Web. 2 April 2013.
Ness, Patrick. “Twinned with a Tyrant.” Rev. of The Icarus Girl, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Daily Telegraph, 30 Jan 2005. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Nudson, Rae. “Helen Oyeyemi on Gingerbread, Fairy Tales, and What Self-Branding Is Doing to Childhood.” Longreads, March 2019. www.longreads.com/2019/03/06/interview-with-helen-oyeyemi/. Accessed 9 July 2020.
O’Grady, Carrie. “Pale Tale.” Rev. of White Is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Guardian, 20 June 2009. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
O’Grady, Megan. “The Fantastic and Mr. Fox: Helen Oyeyemi on her New Folktale-Inspired Novel.” Vogue, 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 7 Sept.
Ositelu, Olutola. Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. African Writing, n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2012.
Ouma, Christopher. “Reading the Diasporic Abiku in Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 45, no. 3, 2014, pp. 188–205. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.45.3.188. Web. 14 Feb. 2023.
Oyeyemi, Helen. Boy, Snow, Bird. Riverhead Books, 2014.
—. “Diary.” New Statesman. 8 May 2006. Web. 10 Sept. 2012.
—. White is for Witching. London: Picador, 2009. Print.
—. “Emily Dickinson by Helen Oyeyemi.” The Guardian, 4 June 2011a.
—. “Entretiens d’Helen Oyeyemi par Denise Coussy.” Interview with Denise Coussy. Cultures sud, n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. “Helen Gives an Overview of the Book [Mr. Fox].” Red Room, n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. “Home, Strange Home.” The Guardian, 2 Feb. 2005.
—. Interviewed by Ben Machell. “Helen Oyeyemi: The Times Interview.” The Times Books, 23 May 2009, www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/article2454862.ece.
—. Interview with Patricia Armion. La Clé Des Langues, 8 June 2012. Web. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. Interview with Gráinne Lyons. Aesthetica Magazine, 7 Sept. 2007. Web. 2 Nov. 2012.
—. Interview with Nadine O’Regan. Nadine O’Regan Wordpress, 9 June 2009. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. Interview with Sowore Omoyele. Elendu Reports, 27 Aug. 2005. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. “I Didn’t Know I was Writing a Novel.” Interview with Anita Sethi. The Guardian, 10 Jan. 2005. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. “Helen Oyeyemi thinks we should read more and stay in touch less.” Interview with Jenifer Wilson. The New Yorker, 3 March 2024. Web.
—. Mr. Fox. New York: Riverhead Books, 2011. Print.
—. “Of Human Bondage.” The Guardian, 2 Aug 2008.
—. “Once upon a Life: Helen Oyeyemi.” The Guardian, 26 June 2011. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. Pie-Kah [White Is for Witching]. Picador UK, 2009.
—. “Reinventing the Haunted House.” Interview with Neelanjana Banerjee. Fiction Writers Review, 16 March 2010. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. “Book of the Week: White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi.” Interview with Claire Armitstead. The Guardian, 19 June 2009, Web.
—. “‘I Do Not Outline’: An Interview with Helen Oyeyemi.” Interview with Emily Pohl-Weary. Hazlitt, 1 April 2014, Web.
—. “The Professionally Haunted Life of Helen Oyeyemi.” Interview with Annalisa Quinn. NPR Books. 7 March 2014, Web.
—. The Icarus Girl. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005. Print.
—. The Opposite House. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2007. Print.
—. “Time of my Life.” The Daily Telegraph 16 Nov. 2008. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
—. “Helen Oyeyemi on Haunted House Novels.” La Clé des Langues, 28 Aug 2012. http://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/helen-oyeyemi-on-haunted-house-novels-15…
—. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea.” Ploughshares, vol. 41, no. 2, 2015, pp. 90–111. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24627187. Web. 14 Feb. 2023.
—. What is Not Yours is Not Yours. Riverhead, 2016.
—. White Is for Witching. Picador, 2009.
—. Gingerbread. Riverhead Books, 2019.
—. Peaces. Riverhead Books, 2021.
—. Parasol Against the Axe. London: Faber & Faber, 2024.
Pignal, Stanley. “Small Talk: Helen Oyeyemi.” Financial Times, 11 May 2007. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Porter, Jessica. "[Im]Migrating Witchcraft: Transatlantic Gothic Hybridity in White is for Witching." Monsters Monstrous, vol. 3, no. 1, 2013, pp. 23-42.
Quint, Jillian. “Helen Oyeyemi: A Talented Young Author Pens a Fractured Fairy Tale.” Bookpage, March 2014, www.bookpage.com/interviews/16250-helen-oyeyemi-fiction#.XtvkZy9Y5QI. Accessed 9 July 2020.
Raheem, Samir. “An Exchange of Identity Crises.” Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Daily Telegraph, 17 May 2007. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Robson, David. “The Young Visiter [sic].” Rev. of The Icarus Girl, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Daily Telegraph, 30 Jan. 2005. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Sanchez, Alexander. “Bluebeard” versus Black British Women’s Writing: Criminal-authors, reader-detectives, and deadly plots in Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr. Fox." English Text Construction, vol. 13, no. 1, 2020, 1-21. doi: 10.1075/etc.00032.san
Sandstrom, Karen. “Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr. Fox Is a Strange and Smart Contradiction.” Cleveland Newspaper, 5 Jan. 2012. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Satkunananthan, Anita Harris. “Textual Transgressions and Consuming the Self in the Fiction of Helen Oyeyemi and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.” Hecate, vol. 37, no. 2, 2011: pp. 41-69.
Sauerberg, Lars Ole: “Repositioning Narrative: The Late-Twentieth-Century Verse Novels of Vikram Seth, Derek Walcaott, Craig Raine, Anthony Burgess, and Bernardine Evaristo.” Orbis Literarum, vol. 59, 2004: pp. 439-64.
Sawyer, Andy. Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. Strange Horizons. n.p. 30 Sept. 2011. Web. 1 June 2015.
Sethi, Anita. Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Guardian, 13 May 2012. Web. 1 June 2015.
Shamsie, Kamila. “The Gods Go Abroad.” Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Guardian, 12 May 2007. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Smith, Ali. “Double Trouble.” Rev. of The Icarus Girl, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Guardian, 22 Jan. 2005. Accessed 7 Sept. 2012.
Smith, Emily. “The Magic of Helen Oyeyemi’s Mirrors.” American Short Fiction, 9 March 2014, americanshortfiction.org/new/magic-helen-oyeyemis-mirrors/. Accessed 9 July 2020.
Stephanou, Aspasia. "Helen Oyeyemi’s White Is for Witching and the Discourse of Consumption." Callaloo, vol. 37, no. 5, 2014: pp. 1245-1259. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cal.2014.0209.
Stouck, Jordan. “Abjecting Hybridity in Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl.” ariel: A Review of International English Literature, vol. 41, no. 2, 2011: pp. 89-112. Print.
Sutton, Joseph. “Foxy Lady.” Rev. of Mr. Fox, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Donnybrook Writing Academy, 13 Jan. 2012. Web.
Tatar, Maria. “Mirrors and Webs: Fairy Tales, Cultural Memory and Trauma in Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird and Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys.” Book 2.0, vol. 7, no. 2, 2017: pp. 177-190.
Taylor, Isabel. “Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl: Review and Author’s Interview.” Albion Magazine, 2005. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
“The Opposite House.” Publishers Weekly 254.15 (2007): pp. 31-31. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Tredennick, Bianca. "'I think I am a monster': Helen Oyeyemi’s White Is for Witching and the Postmodern Gothic." Monsters and Monstrosity From the Fin de Siècle to the Millennium: New Essays, edited by Sharla Hutchison and Rebecca A. Brown. Jefferson McFarland, 2015. pp. 12-28.
Urduhat, James. Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. Financial Times 24 May 2008. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Wagner, Vit. “Young Author is a Class Act.” Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. The Star, 15 June 2007. Web. 7 Sept. 2012.
Wellington, Darryl Lorenzo. “Between East and West.” Rev. of The Opposite House, by Helen Oyeyemi. Washington Post, 15 July 2007. Accessed7 Sept. 2012.
Williams, Olatoun. “‘Boy, Snow, Bird’ by Helen Oyeyemi.” Review of Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi. Borders, 2014, pp. 1-4.
