Ben Okri
FRSL | |
---|---|
Born | Minna, Nigeria | 15 March 1959
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | Nigeria UK |
Genre | Fiction, essays, poetry |
Literary movement | Postmodernism, Postcolonialism |
Notable works | The Famished Road (1991), A Way of Being Free (1997), Starbook (2007), A Time for New Dreams (2011) |
Notable awards | Booker Prize 1991 |
Website | |
benokri |
Sir Ben Golden Emuobowho Okri
Biography
Ben Okri is a member of the
At age 14, after being rejected for admission to a short university programme in physics because of his youth and lack of qualifications, Okri experienced a revelation that poetry was his chosen calling.
Okri's success as a writer began when he published his debut novel, Flowers and Shadows, in 1980, at the age of 21.[1] From 1983 to 1986, he served as poetry editor of West Africa magazine,[9] and he regularly contributed to the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985, continuing to publish throughout this period.[1]
His reputation as an author was secured when his novel The Famished Road won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1991,[1][15] making him the prize's youngest ever winner at 32.[16] The novel was written during the time from 1988 that Okri lived in a Notting Hill flat that he rented from publisher friend Margaret Busby,[17][18] and he has said: "Something about my writing changed round about that time. I acquired a kind of tranquillity. I had been striving for something in my tone of voice as a writer—it was there that it finally came together.... That flat is also where I wrote the short stories that became Stars of the New Curfew."[14]
Literary career
Since the publication of Flowers and Shadows, Okri has risen to international acclaim, and he often is described as one of Africa's leading writers.[2][3] His best known work, The Famished Road, which won the 1991 Booker Prize,[19] along with Songs of Enchantment (1993)[20][21] and Infinite Riches (1998) make up a trilogy that follows Azaro, a spirit-child narrator, through the social and political turmoil of an African nation reminiscent of Okri's remembrance of war-torn Nigeria.[1]
Okri's work is particularly difficult to categorise. It has been widely called postmodern,[22] but some scholars have noted that the seeming realism with which he depicts the spirit-world challenges this categorisation. If Okri does attribute reality to a spiritual world, it is claimed, then his "allegiances are not postmodern [because] he still believes that there is something ahistorical or transcendental conferring legitimacy on some, and not other, truth-claims."[22] Alternative characterisations of Okri's work suggest an allegiance to Yoruba folklore,[23] New Ageism,[22][24] spiritual realism,[24] magical realism,[25] visionary materialism,[25] and existentialism.[26]
Against these analyses, Okri has always rejected the categorisation of his work as magical realism, claiming that this categorisation is the result of laziness by critics and likening it to the observation that "a horse ... has four legs and a tail. That doesn't describe it."[3] He has instead described his fiction as obeying a kind of "dream logic"[12] and said that it is often preoccupied with the "philosophical conundrum ... what is reality?"[13] insisting that:
- I grew up in a tradition where there are simply more dimensions to reality: legends and myths and ancestors and spirits and death ... Which brings the question: what is reality? Everyone's reality is different. For different perceptions of reality we need a different language. We like to think that the world is rational and precise and exactly how we see it, but something erupts in our reality which makes us sense that there's more to the fabric of life. I'm fascinated by the mysterious element that runs through our lives. Everyone is looking out of the world through their emotion and history. Nobody has an absolute reality.[12]
Okri has noted the effect of personal choices: "Beware of the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world."[27]
Okri's short fiction has been described as more realistic and less fantastic than his novels, but it also depicts Africans in communion with spirits,[1] while his poetry and nonfiction have a more overt political tone, focusing on the potential of Africa and the world to overcome the problems of modernity.[1][28]
Okri was made an honorary vice-president of the English Centre for
In April 2019, Okri gave the keynote address at the second Berlin African Book Festival, curated by Tsitsi Dangarembga.[30]
Okri's volume of collected poems, A Fire in My Head: Poems for the Dawn, was published in 2021, its title inspired by a line in Wole Soyinka's poem "Death in the Dawn": "May you never walk / when the road waits, famished."[31]
In 2023, Okri collaborated with artist Rosemary Clunie in Firedreams, at the Bomb Factory, Marylebone, an exhibition of "WordArt" that featured large-scale paintings and sculptural obstructions.[32][33]
Influences
Okri has described his work as influenced as much by the philosophical texts on his father's bookshelves as by literature,
Okri also was influenced by the oral tradition of his people and, particularly, by his mother's storytelling: "If my mother wanted to make a point, she wouldn't correct me, she'd tell me a story."[12] His firsthand experiences of civil war in Nigeria are said to have inspired many of his works.[12]
On the final day of the 2021
Honours and awards
Okri was appointed
- 1987: Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region, Best Book) – Incidents at the Shrine[40]
- 1987: Aga Khan Prize for Fiction – The Dream Vendor's August[41]
- 1988: Guardian Fiction Prize – Stars of the New Curfew (shortlisted)[42]
- 1991–1993: Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts (FCCA), Trinity College, Cambridge[43]
- 1991: Booker Prize – The Famished Road[44]
- 1993: Chianti Ruffino-Antico Fattore International Literary Prize – The Famished Road[45]
- 1994: Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy) -The Famished Road[40]
- 1995: Crystal Award (World Economic Forum)[46]
- 1997: Honorary Doctorate of Literature, awarded by University of Westminster[47]
- 1999: Premio Palmi (Italy) – Dangerous Love[48]
- 2002: Honorary Doctorate of Literature, awarded by University of Essex[49]
- 2003: Chosen as one of 100 Great Black Britons[50]
- 2004: Honorary Doctor of Literature, awarded by University of Exeter[51]
- 2008: International Literary Award Novi Sad (International Novi Sad Literature Festival, Serbia)[52]
- 2009: Honorary Doctorate of Utopia, awarded by Universiteit voor het Algemeen Belang, Belgium[53]
- 2010: Honorary Doctorate, awarded by School of Oriental and African Studies[54]
- 2010: Honorary Doctorate of Arts, awarded by the University of Bedfordshire[55]
- 2014: Honorary Fellow, Mansfield College, Oxford[56]
- 2014: Bad Sex in Fiction Award, Literary Review[57][58]
Works
Novels
- Flowers and Shadows (Harlow: Longman, 1980)[59]
- The Landscapes Within (Harlow: Longman, 1981)[60]
- The Famished Road (London: Jonathan Cape, 1991)[61]
- Songs of Enchantment (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993)[62]
- Astonishing the Gods (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995)[63]
- Dangerous Love (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996)[64]
- Infinite Riches (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998)[65]
- In Arcadia (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002)[66]
- Starbook (London: Rider Books, 2007)[7]
- The Age of Magic (London: Head of Zeus, 2014)[67]
- The Freedom Artist (London: Head of Zeus, 2019)[68]
- Every Leaf a Hallelujah (London: Head of Zeus, 2021)[69]
Poetry, essays and short story collections
- Incidents at the Shrine (short stories; London: Heinemann, 1986)[70]
- Stars of the New Curfew (short stories; London: Secker & Warburg, 1988)[71]
- An African Elegy (poetry; London: Jonathan Cape, 1992)[72]
- Birds of Heaven (essays; London: Phoenix House, 1996)[73]
- A Way of Being Free (essays; London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson: 1997; London: Phoenix House, 1997)[74]
- Mental Fight (poetry: London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999; London: Phoenix House, 1999)[75]
- Tales of Freedom (short stories; London: Rider & Co., 2009)[76]
- A Time for New Dreams (essays; London: Rider & Co., 2011)[77]
- Wild (poetry; London: Rider & Co., 2012)[78]
- The Mystery Feast: Thoughts on Storytelling (West Hoathly: Clairview Books, Ltd, 2015)[79]
- The Magic Lamp: Dreams of Our Age, with paintings by Rosemary Clunie (Apollo/Head of Zeus, 2017)[80][81]
- Rise Like Lions: Poetry for the many (as editor; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2018)[82]
- Prayer for the Living: Stories (London: Head of Zeus, 2019)[83][84]
- A Fire in My Head: Poems for the Dawn (London: Head of Zeus, 2021)[85][86]
Film
- Peter Krüger, 2014)[87]
Online fiction
- "A Wrinkle In The Realm". The New Yorker. 1 February 2021.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Ben Okri", British Council, Writers Directory. Archived 2 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b c "Ben Okri", Editors, The Guardian, 22 July 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f Stefaan Anrys, "Interview with Booker Prize laureate Ben Okri", Mondiaal Nieuws, 26 August 2009.
- ^ Robert Dorsman, "Ben Okri", Poetry International Web, 2000. Archived 16 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Ben Okri | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. 15 March 1959. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
- ^ Davies, Caroline (16 June 2023). "Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Anna Wintour honoured in king's birthday list". The Guardian.
- ^ ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ Juliet Rix, "Ben Okri: My family values", The Guardian, 25 June 2010.
- ^ BlackPast. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (11 March 2021). "Ben Okri". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ Ben Okri profile, The Guardian.
- ^ a b c d e f Anita Sethi, "Ben Okri: novelist as dream weaver", TheNational, 1 September 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Interview: Ben Okri – Booker prize-winning novelist and poet", The Scotsman, 5 March 2010.
- ^ a b Nicola Venning (3 August 2014). "Time and place: Ben Okri". The Sunday Times.
- ^ "Ben Okri: 'The Famished Road was written to give myself reasons to live'", The Guardian, 15 March 2016.
- ^ "Ben Okri", The Cultural Frontline, BBC World Service, 1 May 2016.
- ^ Davies, Paul (1 February 2023). "Video Interview | 'You do this or you die': how Ben Okri wrote The Famished Road". The Booker Prizes. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
- ^ Okri, Bn (20 May 2023). "How I wrote the Famished Road". The Sun. Nigeria.
- ^ "The Booker Prizes Backlist | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
- ^ "Songs of Enchantmen". Publishers Weekly. 30 August 1993. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ "Songs of Enchantment". Kirkus Reviews. 15 July 1993. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ a b c Douglas McCabe. "'Higher Realities': New Age Spirituality in Ben Okri's The Famished Road." Research in African Literatures, vol. 36, no. 4 (2005), 1–21.
- ^ Ato Quayson, Transformations in Nigerian Writing (Oxford: James Currey, 1997).
- ^ Anthony K. Appiah, "Spiritual Realism." Review of The Famished Road, by Ben Okri. The Nation, 3–10 August 1992, 146–148.
- ^ a b c Matthew J. A. Green, "Dreams of Freedom: Magical Realism and Visionary Materialism in Okri and Blake", Romanticism, vol. 15, no. 1 (2009), 18–32.
- ^ Ben Obumselu, "Ben Okri's The Famished Road: A Re-Evaluation." Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, vol. 48, no. 1 (2011), 26–38.
- ^ "A Thought for Today ... Ben Okri", Wordsmith.org, 15 March 2017.
- ^ Ben Okri, "A Time for New Dreams" Archived 19 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine, an interview with Claire Armitstead, RSA. London, 4 April 2011.
- ^ Katie Allen, "Okri made Caine Prize vice-president", The Bookseller, 26 April 2012.
- ^ "A snapshot of the African Book Festival 2019 in Berlin, Germany". James Murua's Literature Blog. 9 April 2019. Archived from the original on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
- ^ O' Malley, JP (9 December 2022). "Nigeria's Ben Okri: 'At its best, poetry draws our attention away from smallness'". The Africa Report.
- ^ "Firedreams, Ben Okri and Rosemary Clunie - Bomb Factory Marylebone". The Bomb Factory. The Bomb Factory Art Foundation. 17 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
- ^ "'Ben Okri & Rosemary Clunie: firedreams' at The Bomb Factory, London". Lisson Gallery London. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
- ^ Saskia Vogel, "Interview: Ben Okri", Granta Magazine, 7 April 2011.
- ^ Ben Okri, Mental Fight: An Anti-Spell for the 21st Century (London: Phoenix House, 1999), 1.
- ^
Okri, Ben (12 November 2021). "Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ "Ben Okri: A writer honoured". BBC News. 13 June 2001. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ "Ben Okri features in Glo/CNN African Voices". Vanguard News. 24 June 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "No. 64082". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 June 2023. p. B2.
- ^ a b "Ben Okri | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
- ^ "Acclaimed Author – Ben Okri". The London Nigerian - Community News and Events for Nigerians in UK. 16 September 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Creative Arts Fellowship marks 50 years". Trinity College, Cambridge. 21 September 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "The Famished Road | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. January 1991. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Ben Okri - Literature". literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Ben Okri". www.penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ Aghadiuno, Eric. "Ben Okri - OnlineNigeria.com". onlinenigeria.com. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "UniVerse :: A United Nations of Poetry :: Ben Okri". www.universeofpoetry.org. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Honorary Graduates - Honorary Graduates - University of Essex". www1.essex.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ 100 Great Black Britons Archived 24 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine website.
- ^ "Ben Okri". CCCB. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Novi Sad International Literature Festival - Literature Across Frontiers". www.lit-across-frontiers.org. 27 August 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Honorary Degree in Utopia for Ben Okri - Antwerp, Belgium 2010", Youtube, 10 March 2015.
- ^ "SOAS Awards Honorary Doctorate to Mr Ben Okri OBE". www.soas.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "South African university honours Nigerian author, Ben Okri". Vanguard News. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
- ^ "Booker Prize-winning author in conversation for Ken Hom annual lecture - Oxford Brookes University". www.brookes.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 26 July 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ Jonathan Beckman, "Twitching Fairy Penguin", Literary Review, December 2014.
- ^ "Bad Sex in Fiction: Ben Okri scoops 2014 prize", BBC News, 3 December 2014.
- OCLC 1043417403.
- ^ "The Ben Okri Bibliography: Primary Sources". www.cerep.ulg.ac.be. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ Paul Taylor (21 March 1993). "BOOK REVIEW / Dreams of a boy on earth: 'Songs of Enchantment' - Ben Okri: Cape, 14.99 pounds". The Independent.
- ^ "Ben Okri, Writer, Author, Nigeria Personality Profiles". www.nigeriagalleria.com. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Dangerous Love". House of Zeus. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ISSN 1080-6512.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ "Author Okri receives bad sex prize". BBC News. 3 December 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
- ^ Stephanie Merritt. "Book of the day | The Freedom Artist by Ben Okri review – wake-up call of a world without books". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- ^ Ellingham, Miles (18 December 2021). "Every Leaf a Hallelujah by Ben Okri — a plea from the forest". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
- ISSN 1080-6512.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
- ^ mjs76. "Visiting Professor - Ben Okri OBE FRSL — University of Leicester". www2.le.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
{{cite web}}
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- ISBN 9781784081843.
- ^ Roy Hattersley (21 August 1999). "A man in two minds". The Guardian.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
- ^ "The Ben Okri Bibliography: On the Internet". www.cerep.ulg.ac.be. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
- ^ Kathie Birat (2015). "'Through a Bending Light': Ben Okri's Poetic Commitment". Commonwealth Essays and Studies. 38 (1). Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ Ben Okri (4 November 2015). "Under the Sun: a meditation by Ben Okri on stories". The Irish Times.
- ^ Philipa Coughlan (1 February 2019). "The Magic Lamp: Dreams of Our Age by Ben Okri". NB Magazine. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ Rebecca swirsky (10 March 2018). "Ben Okri's The Magic Lamp is a collection of morally ambiguous tales for our trying times". New Statesman. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ Jeff Jackson (September 2018). "Books | Rise Like Lions: Poetry for the Many". Socialist Review (438).
- ^ "Prayer for the Living". Head of Zeus.
- ^ Babi Oloko (2 February 2021). "The Immensity of Brevity: On Ben Okri's 'Prayer for the Living'". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ Tamsin Hackett (1 July 2020). "Ben Okri's first poetry collection in eight years goes to Head of Zeus". The Bookseller.
- ^ Angeline Peterson (15 January 2021). "Ben Okri's First Poetry Collection in Nine Years is Out Now". Brittle Paper. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ "N – The Madness of Reason" Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Blinkerfilm, 9 March 2015.
Relevant literature
- Irene, Michael Oshoke. 2015. Re-inventing oral tradition in Ben Okri's trilogy : The Famished Road, Songs of Enchantment and Infinite Riches. Anglia Ruskin University, doctoral dissertation.
External links
- Official website
- Ben Okri's AALBC.com Author Profile
- Ben Okri's official Facebook Page
- Ben Okri's MySpace page
- Ben Okri's official page on the Booker Prizes website.
- Full length You Tube video of Ben Okri winning the 1991 Booker Prize.
- The Ben Okri Bibliography – an extensive bibliography of works by and about Okri, also including a short biography and an introduction to his work.
- Audio: Ben Okri in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum, 19 July 2009.
- Ben Okri on RSA Audio, 4 April 2011.
- "The Awakening Age", a poem by Ben Okri.
- "Draw", a poem by Ben Okri.
- "Lines in Potentis" Archived 14 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine, a poem by Ben Okri.
- "Children of the Dream", a poem by Ben Okri.
- "Dancing With Change", a poem by Ben Okri.
- "I sing a new freedom", a poem by Ben Okri.
- "As clouds pass above our heads...", a poem by Ben Okri.
- "O That Abstract Garden" Archived 12 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine, a poem by Ben Okri.
- Ben Okri: An extended film interview with transcripts for the Why Are We Here? documentary series.
- Réhab Abdelghany, "A Question of Power: Ben Okri's 'Meditations on Greatness' at Africa Writes", Africa in Words, 24 August 2015.