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Ben Okri

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Biography

Ben Okri, born in 1959 in Minna, Nigeria, is a member of the Urhobo people. His father, Silver Okri, moved the family to London when Ben was a young child to pursue a law degree, but they later returned to Nigeria. Ben Okri attended various schools in Nigeria and began his secondary education at Urhobo College in Warri. His experiences during the Nigerian civil war and exposure to a culture with claims of spiritual visions influenced his later fiction. At the age of 14, after a rejection from a university physics program, Okri had a revelation that poetry was his true calling. He started writing articles on social and political issues, which eventually evolved into short stories published in women’s journals and evening papers. His criticism of the government in some of these early works led to threats on his life, prompting him to leave Nigeria. In 1978, Okri returned to England to study comparative literature at Essex University, initially with a grant from the Nigerian government. However, when his funding fell through, he faced a period of homelessness, which he described as crucial to his development as a writer. Okri’s breakthrough as an author came in 1980 with the publication of his debut novel, “Flowers and Shadows,” when he was just 21 years old. He also served as the poetry editor of West Africa magazine from 1983 to 1986 and contributed to the BBC World Service during that time. His reputation soared when his novel “The Famished Road” won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1991, making him the youngest-ever winner at the age of 32. He wrote this novel during the period he lived in a Notting Hill flat, and it marked a significant shift in his writing style and tone. This flat also served as the place where he penned the short stories that later became “Stars of the New Curfew.”

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

In 1991, Okri won the Booker Prize with his novel The Famished Road. He received a knighthood in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature.

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