There is a new breed of African writers taking the global book shops by storm. African Scribes such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dinaw Mengestu,Helen Oyeyemi, NoViolet Bulawayo, Teju Cole, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Taiye Selasi, have become international renown literary publishers across the world with a main focus on the US market.

A wind of good political and economic fortunes in many African states, supported by newer rewards such as the  Caine Prize for African Writing and increased use of social media, have helped these writers from the continent achieve a new critical mass.

And why just in the US?

The New York Times says the increase in number of African immigrants to the United States has more than quadrupled in the last two decades to nearly 1.7 million, creating a lucrative rich market for these budding writers.

Global publishing trends have also changed and now favors African writers. Women, Asian-American, Indian, Latino and African-American writers have all had their moment in the sun. All they can do now is envy the attention given to writers with more recent links in Africa.

At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, black writers with recent African roots will make up more than 10 percent of the fiction students come September, New York Times reported.

While seeking for a publisher for her first novel “Purple Hibiscus”, Adichie struggled to find someone that believed that a story setup in Africa could gather readers from across the globe. But despite all the discouragement she went through she’s now one of the well known new-age African writer.

Adichie has now written three well-received novels and a book of stories. She has amassed awards and has a movie adaptation this year of her novel “Half of a Yellow Sun,” about the Biafran war.

The success of “Half of a Yellow Sun”, her second novel, was a major factor in sending publishers scrambling to find other talented African writers.

“Now we are talking about how the West relates to Africa and it frees writers to create their own worlds. They have several identities and they speak several languages,” Manthia Diawara, a professor of comparative literature and film at New York University, told the New York Times.“

Given the inroads they have made and the new roots they have planted, African writers say they have proved they are much more that a trend.

“My hope is we all become part of the canon, not just here but internationally,” said Ishmael Beah, 33, who lives in the United States.