“I was 16 years old, nearly 17, when a boy first expressed interest in me. Or, maybe it was that I was 16, nearly 17, when I first took notice of a boy’s interest in me.” This is how Chinelo Okparanta’s recollection of her first teenage crush begins. In a piece for Freeman’s magazine, republished […]
Tag Archives: Chinelo Okparanta
How Contemporary African Novelists Have Embraced Historical Fiction
Most of the best-known Africa-set African novels of the last five years are works of historical fiction: from Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust (2013), from Kenya, and Jennifer Makumbi’s Kintu (2014), from Uganda, to Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees (2015), from Nigeria, Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing (2016), from Ghana, Peter Kimani’s Dance of the Jakaranda (2016), […]
Writing in Migration | Photos from the Festival of African Writers in Berlin
Last month, the Nigerian-German novelist Olumide Popoola, author of When We Speak of Nothing, curated a star-studded festival of African writers in Berlin. The event, held from 26–28 April at Kino Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 3010178, Berlin, was themed “Writing in Migration” and was presented by the literary agency InterKontinental. It was sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Berlin’s Senate Department for […]
Chinelo Okparanta Named in CAFE’s List of 100 Extraordinary Changemakers
Chinelo Okparanta has been named in the CAFE 100, “a group of one hundred extraordinary change-makers who are taking action to address some of the most pressing problems in America and around the world.” CAFE is “a media venture developed in partnership between Preet Bharara and Some Spider Studios.” The platform uses video, text, audio, and […]
Chinelo Okparanta Profiled by Sarah Ladipo Manyika for OZY
Chinelo Okparanta has been profiled by Sarah Ladipo Manyika for OZY, where Manyika is Books Editor. Titled “The Nigerian-American Writer Who Takes on Taboos,” the profile focuses on the reception of Okparanta’s body of work which explores queerness—the story collection Happiness, Like Water (2013), and the novel Under the Udala Trees (2016), which is the […]
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