Chiké Frankie Edozien has a decorated career in journalism, which includes working at BET, ABC News, and the New York Post where he garnered several reporting awards for reporting on police brutality, crime, legislative affairs, labour issues, public health, and politics. While at the Post, his coverage of the Amadou Diallo shooting was critically acclaimed, as was his coverage of HIV/AIDS and healthcare disparities in communities in New York City. His work in this regard has led him to travel around the world reporting on the impact of HIV/AIDS, particularly among Africans. In 2008, he became a Kaiser Foundation Fellow for Global Health Reporting.
Chiké is the author of the groundbreaking memoir Lives of Great Men (2017) which won the Lambda Literary Award 2018 for Best Gay Memoir/Biography. Lives was also shortlisted for the 2018 Gerald Kraak Award for gender sexuality and human rights writing and for the Randy Shilts Nonfiction Prize for the Publishing Triangle. It also received the Gay City News Impact Award in 2018. Chiké’s work has also appeared in several anthologies including As You Like It (2018)—a winner 2019 Lambda Literary Award, Best LGBTQ Anthology; The Heart of The Matter (2019); Queer Africa (2018); Safe House: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction (2016); and Relations: An Anthology of African & Diaspora Voices (2023).
Chiké’s work has been published in Time Magazine, Atlas Obscura, The Hollywood Reporter, Transitions Magazine, and the Inbiza Journal for African Writing among others. In 2001, he co-founded the AFRican Magazine and continues to serve as the editor-in-chief.
In 2008, he joined New York University as a clinical associate professor and in 2017 he was awarded its prestigious Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty award for excellence in teaching, leadership, social justice, and community building. Chiké lives in Accra, Ghana where he is the director of the NYU Africa campus which hosts the popular Labone Dialogues, a series of public lectures and masterclasses.
With “Unicorns In Plain Sight”—in which he shared valuable insights about the art of nonfiction and memoir writing—Chiké was the first nonfiction interviewee in Doek!’s ongoing Literatea series.
More and about Chiké Frankie Edozien: “‘We’re Going To Stand Up’: Queer Literature Is Booming In Africa” (The New York Times) • “‘I Want LGBT Africans To Be At Home Everywhere: Q&A With Chiké Frankie Edozien” (The Nation) • “Author Chiké Frankie Edozien On Anti-LGBTQ+ Sentiments In Africa” (The Grio) • “Wasafiri Wonders: Chiké Frankie Edozien” (Wasafiri Magazine) • “Nigeria’s First Gay Memoir Is Essential Primer On The Real Experiences Of LGBT Africans” (OkayAfrica) • “Out Of Africa: Chiké Fankie Edozien” (Jaipur Literature Festival)
Author picture: edozien.net
