Elizabeth-Irene Baitie
Elizabeth-Irene was born in the UK and raised in Ghana, and has always been drawn to a good story. As a child and teenager, she was frequently diverted away from household chores and classwork by the lure of an intriguing novel. From an early age, she wanted to similarly seduce children and young adults into the enthralling realm locked beyond the lines of the written page.
Elizabeth-Irene finds writing for young adults particularly appealing. She says her readers are on a journey of discovery – both of the self and of the people around them. Trials and triumphs of this uncharted, highly charged period of their lives can powerfully impact them, the effects often remaining fresh and raw even through to adulthood. This turbulent period of life is reflected in the pages of Elizabeth-Irene's young adult books in a manner that is lightened by the resilience and joie de vivre of youth.
Her first children's book, A Saint in Brown Sandals won the Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa in 2006. In 2010, her first young adult novel The Twelfth Heart won first prize in the inaugural Burt Award for African Literature competition in Ghana. Its sequels, The Dorm Challenge and Rattling in the Closet were both winners of the Burt Award for African Literature in 2013 and 2016, respectively.
Elizabeth-Irene Baitie is a clinical biochemist and is the director of her privately-run medical diagnostic laboratory in Accra, Ghana. She and her husband Rami have been married for 22 years and have three children aged 21, 19, and 13. When she is not in the lab or writing, she's power-walking, eating chocolate, or chatting.
Elizabeth-Irene was born in the UK and raised in Ghana, and has always been drawn to a good story. As a child and teenager, she was frequently diverted away from household chores and classwork by the lure of an intriguing novel. From an early age, she wanted to similarly seduce children and young adults into the enthralling realm locked beyond the lines of the written page.
Elizabeth-Irene finds writing for young adults particularly appealing. She says her readers are on a journey of discovery – both of the self and of the people around them. Trials and triumphs of this uncharted, highly charged period of their lives can powerfully impact them, the effects often remaining fresh and raw even through to adulthood. This turbulent period of life is reflected in the pages of Elizabeth-Irene's young adult books in a manner that is lightened by the resilience and joie de vivre of youth.
Her first children's book, A Saint in Brown Sandals won the Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa in 2006. In 2010, her first young adult novel The Twelfth Heart won first prize in the inaugural Burt Award for African Literature competition in Ghana. Its sequels, The Dorm Challenge and Rattling in the Closet were both winners of the Burt Award for African Literature in 2013 and 2016, respectively.
Elizabeth-Irene Baitie is a clinical biochemist and is the director of her privately-run medical diagnostic laboratory in Accra, Ghana. She and her husband Rami have been married for 22 years and have three children aged 21, 19, and 13. When she is not in the lab or writing, she's power-walking, eating chocolate, or chatting.
