Chigozie Obioma

Biography:

Chigozie Obioma is the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing. He was born in Akure, Nigeria. His two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were finalists for The Booker Prize and have been translated into 30 languages. He has won an LA Times book prize, the prestigious Internationaler Literaturpris, FT/Oppenheimer prize for fiction, an NAACP Image award and has been nominated for two dozen prizes for fiction. He was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers in 2015 and served as a judge of the Booker prize in 2021. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, Guardian, Financial Times, TheParis Review, Kenyon Review, Granta, and elsewhere. He is also the program director of the Oxbelly Fiction Writers retreat. His third novel, The Road to the Country was published in 2024. 

Education:

I have a Master in English Language and Literature with a specialization on African Literature from Cyprus International University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. 

Books:

• The Road to the Country. New York: Hogarth, 2024

• An Orchestra of Minorities. New York: Little, Brown, 2019

• The Fishermen. London: ONE/Pushkin Press, 2015

Selected non-fiction and Short Story Publications:

• “Interview With a Soldier”. Financial Times Weekend Cover Essay (May 2024)
• “Pride and Punishment.” Of This Our Country: Acclaimed Nigerian Writers on the home, Culture, and identity they know. Scribner, 2021 pp. 183 – 192. 
• “Birdlime.” Kenyon Review (Spring 2021)
• “Repentance”: Esquire UK (January/February 2021). 
• “When the Risen Dust Settles”: Alexander Features (Fall 2020). 
• “Spiders in the House of Men.” Esquire UK (January/February 2020). 
• “Toni Morrison: Farewell to America’s Greatest Writer....” The Guardian, 7 August 2019
• At Europe’s Edge, Unwanted Migrants…” Foreign Policy, 23 June 2019. 
• “Nigeria’s New President is Bound to Fail…” The Guardian, 22 February 2019… 
• “Strange Story of the World.” Granta Online (December 2019).
• “The Desire to Unlearn a Foreign Language”: Paris Review Daily (2019).
• “The Light Under the Bushel.” New York Times: 20 December 2018 pp 20.
• “Midnight Sun.” New Statesman, (11 August 2016).
• “The Great Convert.” Transition Magazine 114 (Summer 2014).
• “Fishermen.” Virginia Quarterly Review 87 (Summer 2011).
• “A Slippery Encounter.” Metro: 4 April 2016 pp. 41.

• “Ghosts of My Student Years in Northern Cyprus.” The Guardian, 16 January 2016.

SCHOLARLY ARTICLES                                                                                                           

• “Teeth Marks: The Translator's Dilemma.” Poets and Writers (Jan/Feb 2016) pp 23-29.

REVIEWS                                                                                                                                             

• “Cormac McCarthy: Where to Start” The Guardian, 22 March 2022.
• At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop, New York Times Book Review, 10 November 2020. 
• Be(com)ing Nigerian: A Guide by Elnathan John, Times Literary Supplement, 7 April 2020.
• Little Family by Ishmael Beah, New York Times Book Review, 28 April 2020.
• After Many Days by Johwor Ile, New York Times Book Review, 3 April 2016. 

LITERARY AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

AWARDS & RECOGNITION FOR AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES 

• Winner, Internationaler Literaturpreis, 2020 (German Edition)
• Finalist, JDD/France Inter Prix du Livre du Estranger, 2020 (French Edition)
• Finalist, Booker Prize, 2019 
• Finalist, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern International Literary Prize 2019
• Finalist, Digital Book Awards, USA, 2019

AWARDS & RECOGNITION FOR THE FISHERMEN 

• ABC-Radio National Best Book of the Decade 2010-2019 
• BBC World Book Club Selection for August 2019
• Winner, Nebraska Book Awards, Fiction Category, 2016
• Winner, NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Debut Literary Work, 2016
• Winner, LA Times/Art Seidenbaum Prize for First Novel, 2016
• Winner, The Inaugural Financial/Oppenheimer Emerging Voices Prize for Fiction, 2015
• Winner, Go On Girl National Book Club Award for Best New Author of the year 2017…

OTHER AWARDS AND HONORS                                                                                   

• Distinguished Writer in Residence, Wesleyan University (2023-20224)
• Visiting Writer at Vermont Studio Center (March, 2019)
• Aspen Writer-in-Residence (August 2017)
• 100 Global Leaders of 2015, Foreign Policy Magazine
• 100 Influential Africans of 2015, New African Magazine…

Email: Cobioma@uga.edu