Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ is a Booker Prize-longlisted novelist

She is the author of the novels Stay with Me and A Spell of Good Things, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023.

Her novels have been translated into over 20 languages. Stay with Me was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Wellcome Book Prize and the Kwani? Manuscript Project and won the Prix Les Afriques and the 9mobile Prize for Literature. A Spell of Good Things was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Encore Award after being longlisted for the Booker.  

Adébáyọ̀ is also the author of Provenance, which was staged as a multi-screen immersive installation co-produced in 2021 by Mutiny and the University of East Anglia. She studied at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and the University of East Anglia, earning degrees in Literature and Creative Writing.  

She is a judge for the Booker Prize 2025.

Reading fiction nurtures my imagination. It remains essential to me for how it can bend time and perspective while inviting me to confront, understand and often, to question my assumptions

— Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Booker Prize 2025 judge, on the power of fiction

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ on writing A Spell of Good Things

‘I started working on it in 2013 but I took a break from it for about a year after my debut novel was published. It took about seven to eight years. The process depends on the stage I’m in with the work.  When I’m working on the first draft, my goal is usually to get to the end or a stand in for it. That is usually quite quick, easy to schedule and could take under a year.  

‘After that, the real work begins. I go over the book repeatedly, section by section, chapter by chapter, page by page, and often sentence by sentence. It is hard for me to plan that stage or anticipate how long it might take or what the rhythm might be like. While I mostly work on a computer, I write in longhand whenever I feel stuck. There’s usually a notebook next to me when I’m working. I use it to doodle, make notes or test out sentences. 

‘The impulse to write often strikes when I’m observing others. Something in a face or manner grabs my attention.  It is rare for me to write about it immediately because I can tell that I’m only glimpsing a shadow. The thing itself might stay hidden for days or even a few years. Ideas, especially the ones that become novels, come to me before I am ready for them. The wait before I write the first sentence is twofold. I wait for the figure casting the shadow I’ve glimpsed to come into view. Then, I wait for my skill as a writer to match up to the demands I feel a story has placed on me.’ 

Read the full interview here.

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

A Spell of Good Things is an examination of class and desire in modern-day Nigeria. A powerful, staggering read

— The Booker Prize 2023 judges on A Spell of Good Things

All nominated books

A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀