Meet the Author: Bassey Ikpi
Ikpi was born in Ikom, Cross River State, Nigeria, on August 3, 1976, to a Nigerian family who were originally from Ugep.[7] When she was four years old, she relocated with her parents to the Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States where she lived until she was 13. Then she moved to Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburb of Washington DC.
On May 4, 2017, it was announced that her first book, a memoir titled Making Friends With Giants would be published by Harper Perennial in 2018.[25]
The book, eventually renamed I'm Telling the Truth But I'm Lying was published in August 2019, and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. Essence described it as a "stunning essay collection".[26] Kola Tubosun calls it "a kind of map for those interested in learning about how mental illness affects people."[27]
The book is described as "a deep personal work that chronicles the Nigerian-American author's life living with bipolar II disorder and anxiety, and a woman of color and combating the stigma surrounding it."[25] The essays cover her difficulties as a young child re-locating from Nigeria to America, struggling with household tensions, depression and hospitalization, leading up to her eventual diagnosis of and treatment for bipolar II disorder.[26]
Source: Wikipedia