Zinzi Clemmons
| Zinzi Clemmons | |
|---|---|
| Residence | Culver City, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Brown University Columbia University |
| Occupation | Author |
| Notable work | What We Lose (2017) |
| Home town | Swarthmore, Pennsylvania |
| Relatives | Phife Dawg |
| Website | www |
Zinzi Clemmons is an American writer. She is best known for her 2017 debut novel What We Lose.
Born to a South African mother from an upper-middle-class family in Johannesburg and African-American father raised in Jamaica, Queens, Zinzi Clemmons grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania and spent summers in South Africa. Rapper Phife Dawg, of the group A Tribe Called Quest, was her cousin.
Clemmons attended Brown University as an undergraduate, studying critical theory, then earned an MFA in fiction at Columbia University, where she worked wtih Paul Beatty. In 2012 she moved home and paused the novel she was working on to care for her mother who was dying of cancer. She began keeping a diary of the experience, which later served as some of the source material for her first novel.
While still at Columbia, Clemmons founded Apogee, an online magazine focused on art engaged with issues of identity.
Clemmons' debut novel What We Lose was published by Viking in 2017. The book was loosely based on Clemmons' own experience being the primary caregiver for her mother when she died of cancer, and was described by The Guardian as "highly experimental, told in intimate vignettes including blogposts, photos, hand-drawn charts and hip-hop lyrics". It received broad critical acclaim, with Vogue calling What We Lose the best debut novel of the year.
In 2017, the National Book Foundation named Clemmons to its annual "5 under 35" list, selected by Angela Flournoy.
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