Ben Okri

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born

March 15, 1959 in Minna, Nigeria

gender

male

About this author

Poet and novelist Ben Okri was born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and Urhobo father. He grew up in London before returning to Nigeria with his family in 1968. Much of his early fiction explores the political violence that he witnessed at first hand during the civil war in Nigeria. He left the country when a grant from the Nigerian government enabled him to read Comparative Literature at Essex University in England.

He was poetry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985. He was appointed Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge in 1991, a post he held until 1993. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literatu...more Poet and novelist Ben Okri was born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and Urhobo father. He grew up in London before returning to Nigeria with his family in 1968. Much of his early fiction explores the political violence that he witnessed at first hand during the civil war in Nigeria. He left the country when a grant from the Nigerian government enabled him to read Comparative Literature at Essex University in England.

He was poetry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985. He was appointed Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge in 1991, a post he held until 1993. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1987, and was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Westminster (1997) and Essex (2002).

His first two novels, Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981), are both set in Nigeria and feature as central characters two young men struggling to make sense of the disintegration and chaos happening in both their family and country. The two collections of stories that followed, Incidents at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988), are set in Lagos and London.

In 1991 Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village, this is the first in a trilogy of novels which tell the story of Azaro, a spirit child. Azaro's narrative is continued in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Other recent fiction includes Astonishing the Gods (1995) and Dangerous Love (1996), which was awarded the Premio Palmi (Italy) in 2000. His latest novels are In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).

A collection of poems, An African Elegy, was published in 1992, and an epic poem, Mental Flight, in 1999. A collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, was published in 1997. Ben Okri is also the author of a play, In Exilus.

In his latest book, Tales of Freedom (2009), Okri brings together poetry and story.

Ben Okri is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.(less)

71 posts
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Published on April 26, 2012 08:59 • 5 views

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Books by Ben Okri

Average rating: 3.70 · 3,439 ratings · 384 reviews · 28 distinct works

	The Famished Road 3.74 avg rating — 2,337 ratings — published 1991 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Songs of Enchantment 3.67 avg rating — 204 ratings — published 1993 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Astonishing The Gods 3.72 avg rating — 167 ratings — 9 editions	My rating:
	Starbook 3.22 avg rating — 122 ratings — published 2007 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Dangerous Love 3.64 avg rating — 103 ratings — published 1996 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Stars of the New Curfew 3.85 avg rating — 85 ratings — published 1989 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Infinite Riches 3.56 avg rating — 72 ratings — published 1998 — 4 editions	My rating:
	In Arcadia 3.15 avg rating — 89 ratings — published 2002 — 2 editions	My rating:
	A Way Of Being Free 4.17 avg rating — 42 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Tales Of Freedom 3.16 avg rating — 31 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:

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Series by Ben Okri

The Famished Road trilogy (3 books)
by Ben Okri

3.73 avg rating — 2,613 ratings

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Quotes by Ben Okri

“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”
― Ben Okri

tags: human , life

61 people liked it

“Only those who truly love and who are truly strong can sustain their lives as a dream. You dwell in your own enchantment. Life throws stones at you, but your love and your dream change those stones into the flowers of discovery. Even if you lose, or are defeated by things, your triumph will always be exemplary. And if no one knows it, then there are places that do. People like you enrich the dreams of the worlds, and it is dreams that create history. People like you are unknowing transformers of things, protected by your own fairy-tale, by love.”
― Ben Okri

37 people liked it

“That's the way it is. If you believe in something your very belief renders you unqualified to do it. Your earnestness will come across. Your passion will show. Your enthusiasm will make everyone nervous. And your naivety will irritate. Which means that you will become suspect. Which means you will be prone to disillusionment. Which means that you will not be able to sustain your belief in the face of all the piranha fish which nibble away at your idea and your faith, 'till only the skeleton of your dream is left. Which means that you have to become a fanatic, a fool, a joke, an embarrassment. The world - which is to say the powers that be - would listen to your ardent ideas with a stiff smile on its face, then put up impossible obstacles, watch you finally give up your cherished idea, having mangled it beyond recognition, and after you slope away in profound discouragement it will take up your idea, dust it down, give it a new spin, and hand it over to someone who doesn't believe in it at all.”
― Ben Okri

tags: in-arcadia

22 people liked it

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Great African Reads: Seeking Nigerian recommendations	23	34	Mar 27, 2012 04:26pm
Around the World ...: Nigeria	8	52	May 30, 2012 01:29pm

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Ben Okri

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71 postsBen Okri's Blog

combine editionsBooks by Ben Okri

Series by Ben Okri

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Quotes by Ben Okri

Topics Mentioning This Author

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Videos

71 posts
Ben Okri's Blog

combine editions
Books by Ben Okri