Website (http://chimamanda.com/) (born September 15, 1977) is a writer/author who has to her credit award-winning books, including Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), which won the Orange Prize for Fiction award in 2007, and Purple Hibiscus (2003), which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in 2005. Born and raised in University of Nigeria, Nsukka, she left the country at 19 to the United States for further studies. She graduated summa cum laude (i.e. with highest honours) from Eastern Connecticut States University in 2001.