Nikolai Okafor is a Nigerian–Russian American novelist and former investigative journalist. Born in Port Harcourt and raised between St. Petersburg and New Bedford, Massachusetts, he studied journalism at Northeastern University and spent a decade covering courts, boats, and corruption along the New England coast. His reporting on maritime fraud, missing persons, and cold cases anchors the briny atmospherics and razor-edged suspense that run through his thrillers and the strand of folk and maritime horror he now explores.
Okafor is the author of the thrillers Salt Workshop (2021), Drowned Orchard (2023), and Pewter (2025), as well as the coastal horror novel Jellyfish Tuesdays (2026). His short fiction has appeared in regional journals and anthologies. He has been honored with the North Atlantic Noir Prize and was a finalist for the Harbor Lights Thriller Award. When not writing, Nikolai volunteers with a search-and-rescue unit, tends a small garden of hardy herbs, and co-hosts the folklore podcast Grey Water. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
