Ben Okri

Sir Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet, novelist, short-story writer, and essayist, widely recognized as one of the foremost African authors in the postmodern and post-colonial literary traditions. He is known for employing magic realism to address the social and political complexities of his Nigerian homeland. Born Ben Golden Emuobowho Okri on March 15, 1959, in Minna, Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and an Urhobo father, Okri spent his early childhood in London while his father pursued a degree in law. The family returned to Nigeria in 1968. He began writing around the end of the Nigerian Civil War. At the age of 18, Okri returned to the United Kingdom to study comparative literature at the University of Essex. Okri's literary career began with journalism before moving into fiction. His first novel, *Flowers and Shadows*, was published in 1980, followed by *The Landscapes Within* (1981). The short-story collections *Incidents at the Shrine* (1986), which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region, Best Book), and *Stars of the New Curfew* (1988) were instrumental in developing his distinctive style, characterized by the blending of the physical world with the spirit world inherent in Nigerian culture. Okri achieved international acclaim in 1991 when he won the Booker Prize for his novel, *The Famished Road*. This made him the first Black writer and the youngest recipient at the time to win the award. *The Famished Road*, along with *Songs of Enchantment* (1993) and *Infinite Riches* (1998), forms a celebrated trilogy narrated by Azaro, a spirit-child. His other major novels include *Astonishing the Gods* (1995), *Dangerous Love* (1996), *Starbook* (2007), *The Age of Magic* (2014), and *The Freedom Artist* (2019). His non-fiction includes the essay collections *A Way of Being Free* (1997) and *A Time for New Dreams* (2011). In recognition of his literary contributions, Okri has received several honors, including being appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was knighted in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature. He has served as Vice-President of the Caine Prize for African Writing and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Westminster and the University of Essex. Ben Okri currently resides in the United Kingdom and continues to write, producing works across fiction, poetry, and essays.