Namina Forna author page

Namina Forna biography

Namina Forna is a young adult novelist and screenwriter. She is originally from Sierra Leone in West Africa and moved to the United States when she was nine. She has an MFA in film and TV production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and a BA from Spelman College.

Her young adult fantasy series follows Deka in an ancient West African-inspired world. The series begins with The Gilded Ones, continues with The Merciless Ones and concludes with The Eternal Ones. The Gilded Ones was published in hardcover by Delacorte Press on 9 February 2021 and in paperback by Ember on 11 January 2022.

The Gilded Ones centres on sixteen-year-old Deka, whose blood ceremony reveals gold blood and leads her to join an army of near-immortal girls called alaki. The book is classified for teen and young adult fantasy readers, with an age range of 12 and up and Grade 7 and up in its US edition. The Gilded Ones was a 2022 South Carolina Children’s Book Award nominee, a 2021 Chicago Public Library Best Books selection and a 2022 Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices selection.

The Eternal Ones is the final novel in Forna’s Gilded trilogy. It follows The Gilded Ones and The Merciless Ones and was published by Usborne in 2024.