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Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Biography

Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Nigerian-American and based in Sweden, Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström is an award-winning author, speaker and photographer. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Sunday Times Travel, The Telegraph, New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Slate, Travel Channel, Adventure Magazine and Lonely Planet, amongst others.

In addition to contributing to several books, she is the author of the following books: the 2018 Lowell Thomas Award winner for best travel book, DUE NORTH; the bestselling LAGOM: Swedish Secret of Living Well, available in 18 foreign language editions; and the internationally acclaimed IN EVERY MIRROR SHE'S BLACK.

She has been recognized with multiple awards for her work, including being named a 2022 Hasselblad Heroine and receiving the 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Bill Muster Award. She was honored with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture in 2018. She contributed to National Geographic's Image Collection.

She is based in Stockholm.

Books by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström - Fiction, Women's Fiction

1978A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia to Stockholm. When her friendship with scholar Lars blossoms into something more, she thinks she may have finally found her place. But there’s more to Lars than his charming persona, and Nancy is about to discover the danger of being drawn into his world. 2006: Tina has had her taste of fame as Sweden’s sweetheart pop princess. But beneath her glittery façade, she’s uncertain who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will the unexpected appearance of Tina’s father help open the door to self-discovery? Nancy just wants to protect her daughter from making the same mistakes she did, but Tina longs for the freedom to mess up, knowing her mother will always be there to support her. The two women love each other unconditionally, but can they learn to trust each other as well?

by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Powerful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi has finally found the man she needs, but Tobias Wikström thinks she's the most selfish woman he has ever met for asking him to give up his life in Sweden and move to the US for her own comfort. Former model-turned-flight attendant Brittany-Rae von Lundin gave up her career and came with nothing into Jonny’s kingdom. Having had a child with him, her greatest fear for Maya includes being cut off from the resources to which she has become accustomed. After fleeing her home through a client to seek a new life in Sweden, Yasmiin finds love in the arms of Yagiz Çelik. But someone from her past forces her to become a caretaker before she’s ready. EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH follows the loosely intertwined and messy lives of Kemi, Brittany and Yasmiin as they interrogate themes of place, prejudice and patriarchy in Europe.

by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström - Fiction

Three Black women are linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man in Stockholm. Successful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi is lured from the U.S. to Sweden by Jonny von Lundin, CEO of the nation's largest marketing firm, to help fix a PR fiasco involving a racially tone-deaf campaign. A chance meeting with Jonny in business class en route to the U.S. propels former model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson into a life of wealth, luxury and privilege as the object of his unhealthy obsession. And refugee Muna Saheed, who lost her entire family, finds a job cleaning the toilets at Jonny's office as she works to establish her residency in Sweden and, more importantly, seeks connection and a place she can call home.