Best-selling author of Children of Blood and Bones Tomi Adeyemi has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, alongside such names as Anthony Fauci, who led the White House Coronavirus Task Force; Academy-Award winning director of Parasite Bong Joon Ho and American artiste Meg the Stallion.

Adeyemi shared the news on Twitter:

 

British-Nigerian actor John Boyega wrote the customary profile that accompanies the feature. His piece is a heartwarming, personal note that details Boyega’s ‘discovery’ of and subsequent fascination with Adeyemi’s work. Referring to Tomi as a ‘god of ideas’, Boyega insists that her work is a win for representation. He also comments on the forthcoming movie adaptation, which he is apparently determined to be a part of.

Read the tribute below:

“When someone told me about Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone, describing it as a cross between Harry Potter, theChronicles of Narnia and Yoruba gods, I was shocked. It sounded like the best combination ever: How had I not heard of it? I read it, then I read it again, then I listened to the audiobook. I was being introduced to a world I couldn’t have imagined before. The characters were larger than life but with very human problems and issues. And the novel spoke to my self-identity and culture as a Nigerian, in its social commentary and in its depiction of both magic and oppression.

It’s so important to have representation within books like this. In school, I realized that only when my teacher considered my point of view did learning become easier. When my kids are growing up, they’re going to have these new classic heroes from an environment they know.

Tomi is the god of ideas. She’s inspiring a lot of young people to write. She creates the very world that we as actors get to play in. And the big-screen adaptation will hire a lot of people and bring more representation to our industry—all that comes directly from Tomi’s imagination. She is going to be very powerful when it comes to bringing stories and ideas to the forefront.

I would absolutely drop everything to be in the film. If I missed the opportunity to be a part of it, it would be like missing history.”

Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orisha trilogy has been heralded as groundbreaking, snagging up multiple awards and appearing on many bestseller lists. The first novel in the trilogy Children of Blood and Bones won the 2019 Hugo Awards while Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the second installation was on the New York Times Bestseller list.

See the full list on TIME.