Chibundu Onuzo was born in Lagos, Nigeria but moved to England as a teenager. She signed the deal for her first book, the Betty Trask Award-winning The Spider King's Daughter, at nineteen. Her second book, Welcome to Lagos, was published in 2016 and in 2018 she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Chibundu's most recent novel for adults, Sankofa, was an October 2021 pick for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club. Mayowa and the Sea of Words is her debut children's novel.