Sefi Atta: The Storyteller Returns With The Gèlè Gang

Sefi Atta has spent more than two decades telling stories about Nigerian women, families and society. Now, the award-winning writer is returning with a new novel, The Gèlè Gang, due for release in February 2027.

Born in Lagos in 1964, Atta trained as a chartered accountant before turning seriously to writing. Her debut novel, Everything Good Will Come, published in 2005, established her as an important voice in contemporary Nigerian literature and won the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2006.

Her other works include Swallow, A Bit of Difference, The Bead Collector and the short-story collection Lawless, which won the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

Her latest novel takes a lighter turn. Set among Nigerian-American women in Atlanta, The Gèlè Gang follows a group of friends in their fifties who decide to find husbands for their twenty-something daughters. Their matchmaking plan does not quite go as expected.

Through the story, Atta explores marriage, motherhood, friendship, identity and the cultural expectations Nigerian women carry across generations and borders. Inspired by Nigerian weddings Atta attended, the novel promises another sharp, humorous look at Nigerian life—this time through the women in the gèlè.