Nigerian Writers

Full Name: Ben Okri
Date of Birth: 15 March 1959 (age 56)Minna, Nigeria
Nationality: Nigerian
Genre: fiction, essays, poetry
Occupation: Writer.
Literary movement: : Postmodernism, Postcolonialism.
Notable works: The Famished Road, A Way of Being Free, Starbook, A Time for New Dreams
Notable awards: Man Booker Prize.


Early Life

Literary movement: Postmodernism, PostcolonialismNotable works: The Famished Road, A Way of Being Free, Starbook, A Time for New DreamsNotable awards: Man Booker Prize

Born in Minna to an Igbo mother and an Urhobo father, Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri spent his early childhood in London while his father studied law and returned to Nigeria with his family in 1968. He studied at Essex University in England.

Informed by folk tales and dream logic, Okri’s writing also treats his family’s experience of the Nigerian civil war. In an interview for The National, Okri stated, “I grew up in a tradition where there are simply more dimensions to reality: legends and myths and ancestors and spirits and death. You can’t use Jane Austen to speak about African reality. Which brings the question: what is reality? Everyone’s reality is different. For different perceptions of reality we need a different language.”

Okri, who served as poetry editor for West Africa magazine, has published numerous books, including the Booker Prize–winning novel The Famished Road (1991), the poetry collection An African Elegy (1992), the essay collection A Way of Being Free (1997), the long poem Mental Flight (1999), and prose-poetry hybrids Tales of Freedom (2009) and A Time for New Dreams (2011).

His honors include an OBE, Italy’s Premio Palmi and Premio Grinzane Cavour, the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, and the Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, as well as honorary doctorates from the University of Westminster and the University of Essex. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Okri has served on the board of the Royal National Theatre and as vice president of the PEN International English Centre. He lives in London.

Bibliography
2012: Wild, Rider Books
2011: A Time for New Dreams, Rider Books
2009: Tales of Freedom, Rider Books
2007: Starbook, Rider Books
2002: In Arcadia, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1999: Mental Fight, Phoenix House
1998: Infinite Riches, Phoenix House
1997: A Way of Being Free, Phoenix House
1996: Dangerous Love, Phoenix House
1995: Birds of Heaven, Orion
1995: Astonishing the Gods, Phoenix House
1993: Songs of Enchantment, Cape
1992: An African Elegy, Cape
1991: The Famished Road, Cape
1988: Stars of the New Curfew, Secker & Warburg
1986: Incidents at the Shrine, Heinemann
1981: The Landscapes Within, Longman
1980: Flowers and Shadows, Longman

Awards

2001: OBE
2000: Premio Palmi (Italy), Dangerous Love
1995: Crystal Award (World Economic Forum)
1994: Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), The Famished Road
1993: Chianti Ruffino-Antico Fattore International Literary Prize, The Famished Road
1991: Booker Prize for Fiction, The Famished Road
1988: Guardian Fiction Prize, Stars of the New Curfew, shortlist
1987: Paris Review/Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, Incidents at the Shrine
1987: Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region, Best Book), Incidents at the Shrine