Helen Olajumoke Oyeyemi (born December 10, 1984) is a British novelist. She was born in Nigeria and moved to London when she was four.

She wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at school studying for her A levels at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.

Oyeyemi studied Social and Political Sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating in 2006. Whilst at Cambridge, two of her plays, Juniper's Whitening and Victimese, were performed by fellow students to critical acclaim and subsequently published by Methuen.

In 2007 Bloomsbury published her second novel, The Opposite House which is inspired by Cuban mythology.

Oyeyemi is a lifelong Catholic who has done voluntary work for CAFOD in Kenya [128060].

In 2009 Oyeyemi was recognized as one of the women on Venus Zine’s “25 under 25” list.

Her third novel, White is for Witching, described as having "roots in Henry James and Edgar Allan Poe" [128061]was published by Picador in May 2009.

Novels

Oyeyemi's two novels, The Icarus Girl and The Opposite House deal with the immigrant experience in modern Britain, as well as feelings of alienation, depression and self-harm. Oyeyemi says of her work: "My novels share a continuity of themes. There's a mother-daughter tension going on. There's this idea of hysteria." [128062]

Her novels both involve aspects of the supernatural. The Icarus Girl deals with Yoruba beliefs about twins, including the tradition of ibeji statues, and The Opposite House with the Cuban Santeria religion. The tension between religion and rationalism is drawn upon, including scenes in The Opposite House where a Cuban immigrant couple are divided by the wife's devotion to Santeria and the husband's lack of religious beliefs.

External links

• Profile from The Guardian
• Too Talented to be This Young from the Globe and Mail
• Author Page on PEN American Center website
• Author Page on bloomsbury.com
• Short Storyin The New Statesman