Exclusive reveal by @people magazine for the US cover of my next novel is out today! And… hold on. DO YOU SEE THIS JACKET ART? THOSE CHEEKBONES? THE COLORS? THE BARE DESIRE & TIGHT RESTRAINT?!🫦 OK! Ok. Ok. Whewww. Art by @affensegun , and jacket design by Lauren Peters-Collaer 🌀
Out in hardback July 22nd 2025 via @riverheadbooks , you can PREORDER NOW to get it on or before the day it drops. No delays. No waiting. Straight to you the second it’s ready, because you’re hot like that ♨️❤️🔥✨
I’m immeasurably more proud of this work than I can say in a caption, and have felt so encouraged by your (im)patience & trust since I first told you its name. Thank you so much for always putting your $ where your love is when it comes to me. I count it the highest honor to once again be able to get my best work into your hands! 😭💛
Now? Scream with me please (!!!!) because this has been a journey and a half. Literal blood, sweat and tears went into this one. Tell a friend to tell a lover to tell a foe to tell a stranger that #NecessaryFictionisComing. Because *it is.* Then buckle up for a wild, wild run! Let us begin. 🎞️🎥🎬
Proud to be featured in Dazed Magazine’s Autumn 2024 #TheImpossibleIssue, out now. Shoutout to Ezra Olaoya, who mapped out such a thoughtful, rounded conversation, and wrote about my past and present work with great beauty. We talked stories, freedom, music, art, culture, God, and the future. Shoutout, also, to Adaeze Okaro whose eye is matchless and magical. Can’t think of anyone better to have worked on this with. Get into her work!
PS: there are a few exciting soft launches in these pages. Proceed with. . . intention. Ha! Credits —
Photography & production: @adaezeokaro
Creative direction & styling: @eloosunde
Writing: @ezraola
Lights: @adaezeokaro
BTS & set design: @coltankubiangha & @naomimorganwrites
Hair: @eloosunde
Makeup: @xsters__glam
Nails: @eloosunde
Editor-in-Chief: @ibkamara
Art Director: @gareth_wrighton
Editorial Director: @kaci0n
Fashion Director: @imruh
Thank you for your magic @dazed . My favorite magazine OF ALL TIME for a reason✨♥️
Yesterday, a starstudded room full of hundredssss erupted in applause as my words were read by THE @naomi at @victoriassecret ’s World Tour launch; and then introduced by @gigihadid .
‘Naomi’s Monologue’ is about acquiring a walk, worldmaking with bonechilling audacity and talking directly to one’s creator without fear. Drawing on Naomi’s iconic walk and a conversation we had, I wrote it from a deeply personal place, tracing my own journey with the God of my head as a maker in my own right, moving through this world.
Since we started work on this project about a year ago, it has flown me to Lagos, Abuja, Barcelona, New York.
Today I feel like: my work is inevitable. & so am I.
I want to say a public & massive THANK YOU to @naomi again for trusting me completely throughout this process and never doubting or questioning the structure of what I built. And then for performing the piece with pure power. I’m truly truly honored. What an icon; what a time. There’s more to say & see about this, but that’s for later.
Thank you to @victoriassecret & @raulmartinez1024 for… well, for all of it.
Everything has changed… again.
Thank you to every single person celebrating this moment loudly & proudly with me. I see everything & I’ll never forget. To my love, for holding me down through the process & bringing me flowers. To my closest people for gathering me together. To everyone I worked with.
Finally, to my incredible cohort: the entire VS20 team, I remain entranced by your brilliance. Every door stays open from here on out.
Let’s fucking go!
#VSWorldTour #TheTour23
Time is trippy. I’ve been a full time artist for eleven years now. I looked, chose, started walking and then just never turned back around.
Multiple exhibitions across three continents, two bestselling works of fiction, other multidisciplinary projects, work in film, fashion, consulting, curation, spatial design and installation, I’m proud of what I’ve done with my hands. It’s exhilarating to know that there’s so much more beyond here.
I spent some time looking at some of my early visual art the other day. My art practice looks nothing like this these days, but it was an immediate portal back into the me all those years ago who created this work, fastidiously cultivating the courage I build my new work on. It was a reminder that a maker is who I’ve always been, even when I didn’t fully know what was ahead; even as my mediums shift, morph and expand. I liked much of what I found — how free I felt to do, dare, fail, try again — and wanted to share some of that with you. Tell me if you love something ❤️
Seeing how much I didn’t know/how little I truly know used to scare me. But now, when I look at all the things I’ve never learned or forgotten over time or that it never occurred to me to pay attention to before, I feel a quiet thrill. Because of how much I do not yet know or have even lost knowledge of, so much is possible. I don’t know life that much after all. At least not with strict certainty. And so, I can simply meet it afresh every day that I’m given, again and again and again.
Hands open, heart wide.
Thank you to @jupiter.magazine & @camillegbacon for their thoughtful invitation which led to the sexiest, most thrilling short story I’ve written in some time. SILVERSCREEN is about two celebrated Nollywood actors and their complex dynamic over a stretch of time.
Thank you, also, to @pronouncedliv.e for a perfectly placed elevating score. If you’ve been here with me for a while then you know I love a multilayered execution. This was that.
You’ll find two random excerpts and an afterword in this carousel, but read the full thing. I know all our attentions are fried atm but it’s worth it I promise. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts after you’ve read the story, which is out now. 🖇️ in stories shortly and in Jupiter’s bio already ❤️
Here are some of my favorite Reader Cam photos over the last six months!
Getaways, pools, lush bathtubs, long train rides, coffee in the morning, bikinis and sun, lounging at home, prose and wine, bookclubbing, impromptu gatherings with friends, reading dates, vibrant nail sets with thoughtful captions?! Everything fits. Never forget, it’s *always* NF season. NF is for right now, months back, inside that other unnameable time; for whether you’re on the precipice of spring or in preparation for winter, in grief or stupendous joy; for post gym and pre dinner, picnics at the park, that tote you chose to carry because it matches your outfit, the lull at the house party because you know your social battery, wheneverrrr. Pick it up!
The thoughtfulness, the composition, the taste in these pictures? *chef’s kiss* Looking at them makes me so happy!
Thank you to everyone who has tagged me or mentioned the book, shared a photo or suggested it to their book club. So so grateful for you. Please keep them coming. It’s never not a pleasure to see. I adore you totally ❤️
My beloved novel NECESSARY FICTION has now officially been out in the world for SIX months
🥹❤️🔥🙏🏽🚀‼️
Named an NPR Best Book of the Year, featured and/or reviewed by over 30+ publications from the New Yorker to Guzangs, Paris Review to Amazon Music, Ms Magazine to Autostraddle, British Vogue to the Guardian, if you haven’t read it yet, you should.
Not all of it has been easy or pure triumph, and of course. But joyful pauses matter to me because I know what it took to get here. Today, I feel confident, grateful and so aware of/awake to my miracle-paved path. So I will be soaking it in.
To celebrate, I’ll be giving away 6 copies to my readers in Nigeria in a pass-it-on pattern.
How to enter:
If you’ve read NECESSARY FICTION, please share a sentence or two about why you think this book matters.
Then tag someone in your life who *has not* yet (emphasis on this) read the book and who you would like to gift it to. End with a sentence on why you think the person you’re tagging should be the one to get the book.
Will select and DM the winners for their details when I have a moment.
And as always, a massive massive thank you to everyone who has been spreading the word of this work with me for months now. Thank you for being in this circle with me ❤️
2025, BTS: Burned bright, burned out. Shone big, fell back, soared up. Lost cuttingly, won stupendously. Doubled down on purpose. Did what I could with what I had. It was phenomenal. Many days, I could feel the sky right under my toes.
Proud of the person I became in order to get through every bit of this year without judgement. I own it all. Shoulders up, I am proud.
I got to see NECESSARY FICTION, my second novel-in-stories, in its own flesh. Toured in four countries, hung out with my readers, ate and laughed with my team(s). What only I can do with form and storytelling is clearer to me than ever before. NF has reached thousandsss of people just five months in. And remember: this world is huge.
My illusions fell to shards at my feet many times this year, but it was time and I felt… rescued by even that. My disappointments and heartbreaks were a mercy. I see that too.
I was hit hard, but not smashed to nothing this year, and I received such generosity when I needed it. I received favor at every turn. I’m in so much less pain than I used to be. I’m figuring it out. Said no when I needed to. Got better at slowing down and caring for my health.
Collaborated in new ways and I’m so thankful for the people I got to make magic with. Grew new membranes over evaporating stories and feel comfortable with that. My inner voice is kinder. Beyond respect, I often talk to myself with care, with love, with deep patience. I’d been needing that for long.
That was my year. I hope you’re well. I hope you’re giving yourself what you need. For me, that has been deep sleep, joy and pleasure in the coziest spaces.
See you on the other side? Thank you for being here with me ❤️
