Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Faculty and Staff

Faith Adiele

fadiele@chatham.edu
Lecturer
Hometown : Oakland, CA
Joined Chatham : 2012

Academic Areas of Interest

Women's travel writing; Black travel writing; Documentary narrative; Socially-engaged memoir; Hybrid and multi-genre creative nonfiction; Multicultural and international Young Adult literature

Personal Areas of Interest

International travel, Documentary film, and Food (cooking and consuming).

Personal Website : Visit Website | Visit Website

Biography

Faith Adiele was born to a Nigerian father and a Nordic-American mother, and the PBS film My Journey Home documents her travels abroad to find her father and siblings in Africa. Her travel memoir about becoming the first black Buddhist nun of Thailand, Meeting Faith, received the PEN Beyond Margins Award for Best Memoir. A popular speaker, teacher and MC, Adiele has presented at universities, churches and community centers around the world; worked as a diversity trainer and community activist; and taught memoir and travel writing in Bali, Chautauqua, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Switzerland. Her writings on travel and culture have been widely anthologized. A contributor to O: The Oprah Magazine, Yes!, Essence, and Transition, Adiele is co-editor of Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology (The New Press). She currently serves as the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College in Oakland, California, where she is finishing Twins: Growing Up Nigerian / Nordic / American, an “epic memoir” that will complete the story begun in the PBS documentary. She was recently appointed Associate Professor in Creative Nonfiction at California College of the Arts.