CHRIS/ABANI NIGERIA PROSE and POEtRy

hris Abani was born in 1966 in Afikpo in southern Nigeria. His first novel, Masters of the Board, was published when he was 16. He

was already then very critical of the country’s regime. In the 1980s, he was imprisoned several times for his writing. At times he was held in an isolation cell, but in 1991 he managed to escape to England. In the late 1990s he moved to Los Angeles. He is now a professor at the Univer- sity of California Riverside where he teaches Creative Writing. He also runs a publishing company, Black Goat Press.

Abani has often been defined as the im-prisoned author who has endured terrible ex- periences. But he rejects this and says, “That is not all I am ... it created the questions I ask of life and of myself. And I believe that one of these questions will always remain: Is reconciliation possible?”

He has published four collections of poems (Hands Washing Water, Kala ku ta Republic,

Dapnhe’s Lot and Dog Woman) and five novels (Masters of the Board, Becoming Abigail, The Virgin of Flames, Graceland and Song for Night).

Three of his novels have been translated into Swedish by Roy Isaksson and published by Celanders: Abigails liv (2006), Graceland (2008) and Nattens sång (2010).

Chris Abani has received many prizes and awards, including PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Prize 2001, Prince Claus Award 2001, PEN Hemingway Book Prize 2005 and The PEN Beyond the Margins Award 2008.

C

CHRIS ABANI (right) together with fellow NigeriaN writers heloN habila (far left) aNd tolu oguNlesi. speakiNg

at the africa staNd, chris abaNi argued that although he has choseN to write

about terrifyiNg aNd violeNt eveNts, reality always outdoes literature.