Namina Forna Biography
Namina Forna is a Sierra Leonean American screenwriter and author of young adult novels. Her debut novel, The Gilded Ones, was published in February 2021 and rapidly made it to the New York Times and Indie Bestseller lists.
Namina Forna Age
She was born on 9 January 1987 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Forna is 37 years old as of January 2024.
Namina Forna Education
In Atlanta, she attended Spelman College, a private historically black women’s liberal arts college, where she met Nawal El Saadawi, who would inspire The Gilded Ones, Forna’s pioneering feminist fantasy tale. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree at Spelman, Forna relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts and got a Master of Fine Arts degree in cinema and television production.
Namina Forna Family- Parents
Forna was born and raised in Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown. Forna is daughter of the Honorable A. G. Sembu Forna, a noted Sierra Leonean politician, and her mother is Ambassador and former Sierra Leone deputy minister of foreign affairs, Ebun Strasser-King. After her parents divorced, Forna’s mother relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. However, due to the impending civil war and general political insecurity in Sierra Leone, her father chose to transfer his nine-year-old daughter to live with her mother in the United States.
Namina Forna Career
Forna, writing in The Guardian in 2021, stated that her father and grandmother inspired her to become an author. As a child, she heard them tell legends of powerful women like Mami Wata, the goddess of water, and the Dahomey Amazons. She later discovered that western literature lacked black female heroes, and she was determined to alter that. Forna became the first Sierra Leonean American to receive a book deal from a major publisher for a young adult fantasy novel. The Gilded Ones, published in 2021, got strong critical attention, including a review in Publishers Weekly that stated, “Formidable heroines and a thoughtful feminist mythology distinguish debut author Forna’s West Africa-inspired fantasy trilogy launch.” Abundant action drives the pace.
Forna Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of 1 million dollars.