Chimamanda Adichie gets elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters

• Wole Soyinka was the first Nigerian to be inducted.
  

Another recognition for the renowned writer

Famous Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has been elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters as a foreign honorary member.
Chimamanda will be inducted alongside two other foreign honorees at the annual induction in May.
The award-winning author whose literary works, Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, have been adapted for the screen will be the second Nigerian to be inducted into the academy.

Wole Soyinka was the first to be inducted in 1986.
In a press release posted on its website, the academy revealed that 14 Americans and two foreign honorees will be inducted alongside the author.
The other foreign honorees are Kaija Saariaho, a Finnish composer, and Zadie Smith, an English writer.
‘When the American Academy of Arts and Letters holds its annual induction and award ceremony in mid-May, Calvin Trillin, secretary, will induct fourteen members into the 250-person organisation and Yehudi Wyner, president will induct three foreign honorary members,’ the press release read.

Others elected into the academy.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a honour society which aims to ‘foster, assist, and sustain excellence’ in American literature, music, and art.
It is currently a 250-person organisation, but with the induction of Chimamanda and the others, the number will increase.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898 as an honour society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers.