Uwem Akpan short stories and autobiographical pieces have appeared in the special editions of The New Yorker, the Oprah magazine,Hekima Review, the Nigerian Guardian, America, etc.

His first book, Say You're One of Them, was published in 2008 by Little, Brown. It made the "Best of the Year" list at People magazine, Wall Street Journal, and other places. The New York Times made it the Editor's Choice, and Entertainment Weekly listed it at # 27 in their Best of the Decade. 

Say You're One of Them won the Commonwealth Prize (Africa Region), the Open Book Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. 

The collection of short stories was the 2009 Oprah Book Club selection. A New York Times and Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, it has been translated into 12 languages.

His second book and first novel, New York, My Village, was published on November 2, 2021, by WW Norton. In this immigrant story, Uwem writes about NYC with the same promise and pain we saw in his African cities of Say You're One of Them. 

Uwem teaches in the University of Florida’s MFA program