Abi Daré

Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where she was exposed to many households—including her own—that employed young girls as housemaids. These girls were usually brought to Lagos from small villages or other countries, and it was common for their employers to mistreat them. It was in part her experiences with these girls, their stories, and the way they used language that inspired Daré to write The Girl with the Louding Voice. After Daré’s parents divorced, her mother raised her and her brother. Their mother instilled in Daré the importance of education and ensured that her children received the best education possible. Daré was educated at the Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls in Nigeria before moving to the UK in 2000 to pursue a law degree at Wolverhampton University, an MSc in International Project Management at Glasgow Caledonian University, and later, an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London. The Girl with the Louding Voice is her first novel. The unpublished manuscript that would later become the novel won the 2018 Bath Novel Award and was a finalist for the 2018 Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition. Daré lives in Essex with her husband and two daughters. As of 2020, she oversees app development at a publishing firm.