Helen Oyeyemi | Author

Helen Oyeyemi
bedtime stories for immigrant kids

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PUBLISHED: Jun.01.2011

Mr Fox

It’s an ordinary afternoon in 1938 for the celebrated American novelist St John Fox, hard at work in the study of his suburban home – until his long-absent muse wanders in. Mary Foxe (beautiful, British and 100% imaginary) is in a playfully combative mood. “You’re a villain,” she tells him. ‘A serial killer . . . can you grasp that?” Mr Fox has a predilection for...

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PUBLISHED: Jun.23.2009

White is for Witching

"Miranda is at home—homesick, home sick..." As a child, Miranda Silver developed pica, a rare eating disorder that causes its victims to consume nonedible substances. The death of her mother when Miranda is sixteen exacerbates her condition; nothing, however, satisfies a strange hunger passed down through the women in her family. And then there's the family house in Dover, England...

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PUBLISHED: Jun.19.2007

The Opposite House

Maja was five years old when her black Cuban family emigrated from the Caribbean to London. Now, almost twenty years later, Maja is a singer, in love with Aaron, pregnant, and haunted by what she calls “her Cuba.” Growing up in London, she has struggled to negotiate her history and the sense that speaking Spanish or English made her less of a black girl. But she is unable to find...

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PUBLISHED: Jan.17.2005

Juniper's Whitening and Victimese

Two plays exploring the pain of living and the difficulty of dying

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PUBLISHED: Jan.17.2005

The Icarus Girl

Jessamy “Jess” Harrison is eight years old. Sensitive, whimsical, possessed of an extraordinary and powerful imagination, she spends hours writing haiku, reading Shakespeare, or simply hiding in the dark warmth of the airing cupboard. As the child of an English father and a Nigerian mother, Jess just can’t shake off the feeling of being alone wherever she goes, and the other kids...

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Helen's Latest Blogs

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Mar.20.2011 - 9:53 am

'no girl gains perspective until she's transplanted; it's a universal fact of life.'

huh. calendar says 11 days until i move to berlin. yes, with my three enormous suitcases, blah blah, the usual. i remember falling hard for paris because it had all those buttery...

Feb.14.2011 - 2:56 am

edith wharton's ghost stories

so good...so good. especially kerfol. had to sleep with two lights on.

Jan.19.2011 - 3:34 pm

can you imagine

what a masterpiece peter the great's blackamoor would have been if only pushkin had finished it? i mean, seriously. i think it would have given othello a slap in the chops. a...

Dec.26.2010 - 5:40 pm

sometimes i get awfully homesick

even though i've never been there, and probably never will. (i suppose i'm talking about moldova.) hands up if you know what i mean.... .... FINE THEN, BE LIKE THAT.

Comments from Helen

Jan.19.2011 - 3:51 pm

In response to: "I once drank 5 bottles of champagne in one afternoon...." - the legend Nina Simone

love this.

Aug.04.2010 - 1:54 am

In response to: So-little-quy

more, mooore!

Aug.04.2010 - 1:48 am

In response to: Hey Chaucer

this is great.

Aug.04.2010 - 1:44 am

In response to: rebellion

thanks, chaps. Sharon-

thanks, chaps. Sharon- Uganda! you're an adventuress. extra adventuress points if you're flying with a one way ticket....

Apr.17.2010 - 10:27 am

In response to: Clumps and Clusters

wonder what the opposite of a round of ignorings is...

when my chin wants lifting i've been known to mutter a yoruba proverb: 'if a leaf falls and no one sees, then the leaf...

Published Reviews

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Oct.28.2011

Mr Fox

Published by The New York Times

About Helen

Born in Chisinau, Moldova, December 10th 1904. Died in St. Petersburg, Russia, December 8th, 1930. Never had a good answer to the question 'what are you doing here?'

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Helen’s Favorite Books

le morte d'arthur and lancelot du lac the thousand and one nights the leper's companions blindness the queen's diadem the pillow friend miss mackenzie anne of...

Helen Oyeyemibedtime stories for immigrant kids

Featured Works

Helen's Latest Blogs

Comments from Helen

Published Reviews

About Helen

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Helen’s Favorite Books

Helen Oyeyemi
bedtime stories for immigrant kids