Esi Edugyan author page

Esi Edugyan biography

Esi Edugyan is a Canadian writer of literary fiction. She has a Masters in Writing from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and her work has appeared in anthologies including Best New American Voices 2003 and Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing (2006). Her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and chosen by the New York Public Library as one of its 2004 Books to Remember.

Her novels include The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black. Half-Blood Blues won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Orange Prize.

Washington Black was published in the United States by Knopf and Random House Audio. The novel won the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize, announced on 19 November 2018, making it Edugyan’s second Scotiabank Giller Prize after Half-Blood Blues in 2011.

Washington Black was selected as one of six finalists for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, from books published in the UK between 1 October 2017 and 30 September 2018. Washington Black was also a fiction finalist for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence.