Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo

Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo is the author of The Tiny Things Are Heavier, which Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Forbes named a Best Book of 2025. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a PhD from Florida State University, and is currently an Assistant Professor of English and African and African American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Her fiction has appeared in Isele Magazine, VQR, and Guernica. She’s a recipient of a 2021 Elizabeth George Foundation Grant and the 2024 Torch Literary Fellowship.

Teaching Philosophy

In my classrooms, I invite rigor, generosity, and curiosity. We read across traditions to expand our sense of what fiction can do, and we write toward compassion without abandoning edge.