Sir Ben Golden Emuobowho Okri is a Nigerian-born British poet and novelist. Considered one of the foremost African authors in the postmodern and post-colonial traditions, Okri has been compared favourably to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. In 1991, his novel The Famished Road won the Booker Prize. Okri was knighted at the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature.
Nigerian literature may be roughly defined as the literary writing by citizens of the nation of Nigeria for Nigerian readers, addressing Nigerian issues. This encompasses writers in a number of languages, including not only English but Igbo, Urhobo, Yoruba, and in the northern part of the county Hausa and Nupe. More broadly, it includes British Nigerians, Nigerian Americans and other members of the African diaspora.
African literature is literature from Africa, either oral ("orature") or written in African and Afro-Asiatic languages. Examples of pre-colonial African literature can be traced back to at least the fourth century AD. The best-known is the Kebra Negast, or "Book of Kings" from the 14th century AD. Another well-known book is the Garima Gospels, one of the oldest known surviving bibles in the world, written in Ge'ez around 500 AD.
The Famished Road is a novel by Nigerian author Ben Okri, the first book in a trilogy that continues with Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Published in London in 1991 by Jonathan Cape, The Famished Road follows Azaro, an abiku, or spirit child, living in an unnamed African city. The novel employs a unique narrative style, incorporating the spirit world with the "real" world in what some have classified as animist realism. Others have labelled the book African traditional religion realism, while still others choose simply to call the novel fantasy literature. The book exploits the belief in the coexistence of the spiritual and material worlds that is a defining aspect of traditional African life.
An ọgbanje is a term in Odinani for what was thought to be an evil spirit that would deliberately plague a family with misfortune. Belief in ọgbanje in Igboland is not as strong as it once was, although there are still some believers.
The Inheritors is a work of prehistoric fiction and the second novel by the British author William Golding, best known for his first novel, Lord of the Flies (1954). It concerns the extinction of one of the last remaining tribes of Neanderthals at the hands of the more sophisticated Homo sapiens. It was published by Faber and Faber in 1955.
Wanda Coleman was an American poet. She was known as "the L.A. Blueswoman" and "the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles".
Heidi Suzanne Julavits is an American author and was a founding editor of The Believer magazine. She has been published in The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2, Esquire, Culture+Travel, Story, Zoetrope All-Story, and McSweeney’s Quarterly. Her novels include The Mineral Palace (2000), The Effect of Living Backwards (2003), The Uses of Enchantment (2006), and The Vanishers (2012). She is an associate professor of writing at Columbia University. She is a recipient of the PEN New England Award.
Rider is a publishing imprint of Ebury Publishing, a Penguin Random House division. The list was started by William Rider & Son in Britain in 1908 when he took over the occult publisher Phillip Wellby. The editorial director of the new list was Ralph Shirley and under his direction, they began to publish titles as varied as the Rider–Waite tarot deck and Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Anthills of the Savannah is a 1987 novel by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. It was his fifth novel, first published in the United Kingdom 21 years after Achebe's previous one, and was credited with having "revived his reputation in Britain". A finalist for the 1987 Booker Prize for Fiction, Anthills of the Savannah has been described as the "most important novel to come out of Africa in the [1980s]". Critics praised the novel upon its release.
Starbook, subtitled "A Magical Tale of Love and Regeneration", is a 2007 novel by Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri.
Dangerous Love is a 1996 novel by Ben Okri set in Lagos of the 1970s. The novel is a remake of an earlier book, The Landscapes Within (1981). It is set in a post civil-war Nigerian society in a Lagos compound. Dangerous Love follows a young artist named Omovo and the influence that corrupt politics has on his artistry in the ghettos of Lagos in Nigeria after the Civil War.
In Arcadia is a 2002 novel by Ben Okri. It is a book inspired by the painting Et in Arcadia ego, and sweeps through 400 years of history, set in Europe, primarily London and Paris.
Astonishing the Gods is a novel by Nigerian writer Ben Okri.
The Age of Magic is a 2014 novel by Nigerian writer Ben Okri. It won the Bad Sex in Fiction Award in 2014.
The Freedom Artist is a dystopian political novel by Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri. The first edition was published in 2019 by Akashic Books in the US and by Head of Zeus in the UK.
Every Leaf a Hallelujah is an environment theme novel written by Nigerian-British writer Ben Okri and illustrated by Diana Ejaita. It was published in 2021 by Other Press (US) and Apollo (UK) in 2021.
Flowers and Shadows is a novel by Ben Okri.,a Nigerian author who won the Booker’s price award in 1991.The novel was set in Lagos. The novel portrays the realities of poverty and social lifestyle in Lagos. The protagonist, Jeffia, initially sheltered in wealth, confronts the darker aspects of his family's history and society's injustices. Themes of innocence versus experience, the legacy of family sins, and the resilience of hope amidst despair frequently appear throughout the novel. Through rich language and diverse characters, the novel explores the concept of beauty and brutality, ultimately offering a message of triumphant optimism despite society's shadows.
The Landscapes Within is a 1981 book by Nigerian writer Ben Okri and was published by Longman. The novel was set in Lagos, Nigeria, and delves the life of a young painter and his aspirations centred on the harsh reality of his work which the author wrote, "...continued to haunt him and trouble him through the years, because in its spirit and essence he sensed that it was incomplete."
Infinite Riches is a novel by Nigerian writer Ben Okri, published in 1998. The spirit-child Azaro remains in the chaotic world of his African village, seeing the turbulent and fragile lives of the Living. These include his mother, who fights for justice, and his father, who is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. The book is the third book of a trilogy which began with Famished Road in 1991.
