Faith is the daughter of a Nordic-American single mother and a Nigerian politico father, She was raised as the sole African girl in a small farming community in Washington State and attended Harvard on scholarship. After Harvard, she moved into the forests of Southeast Asia and became the first black Buddhist nun of Thailand. Her memoir about this experience, Meeting Faith (W.W. Norton & Co.), received the 2005 PEN Beyond Margins Award for Best Memoir (of 2004). Her trip to Nigeria inspired the PBS documentary " My Journey Home ," produced by award-winning filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña and written and narrated by me. Her work, called both “luminous” (O Magazine) and “remarkable” (Book-of-the-Month Club), has been widely published and anthologized, credited with “[reaching] into the expanding geography of black women’s experiences” (Belles Lettres). Honors/fellowships include a UNESCO International Artists Bursary (Italy); Best American Essays shortlist; the Banff Cent...
ACCLAIMING PEOPLE OF IGBO DESCENT