Ifeoma Okoye was born in Anambra State, Nigeria. She taught as a Senior lecturer of English at Nnamdi Azikiwe University until 2000.

As well as being a prominent children's and short stories writer, her adult fiction has received numerous awards such as the prestigious Nigerian National Council of Art and Culture award in 1983 with her novel Behind the Clouds. She also won the 1985 Ife National Book Fair award and was the African Regional winner for the Commonwealth Short Story Competition in 1999.