Chinelo Okparanta
| Chinelo Okparanta | |
|---|---|
 Chinelo Okparanta reads at Mission Creek Festival, Iowa City | |
| Born | Port Harcourt, Nigeria |
| Occupation | novelist, short story writer |
| Nationality | Nigerian-American |
| Period | 2010s |
| Notable works | Happiness, Like Water |
Chinelo Okparanta is a Nigerian-American writer.[1] Born and raised in Port Harcourt, Nigeria,[2] she emigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 10.[3]
Early life
Chinelo Okparanta was educated at Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.[2]
Career
Okparanta has published short stories in publications including Granta, The New Yorker, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, TriQuarterly, Conjunctions, Subtropics and The Coffin Factory, and has held fellowships or visiting professorships at The University of Iowa, Colgate University and Purdue University.[2] Her essays have appeared in Granta, AGNI, The Story Prize blog, and the University of Iowa International Writing Program blog.
Her debut short story collection, Happiness, Like Water (Granta Books), was longlisted for the 2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, shortlisted for the 2014 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.[4] She has been nominated for a United States Artists Fellowship and was a finalist for the 2014 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in Literature. Other honors include the 2013 Society of Midland Authors Award (finalist), the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing (finalist), and a 2014 O. Henry Award.
Happiness, Like Water was an Editors' Choice for The New York Times Book Review on September 20, 2013. It was also listed as one of The Guardian's Best African Fiction of 2013, and in December 2014 was announced as being on the shortlist for the Etisalat Prize for Literature.[5][6]
Her first novel, Under the Udala Trees, was published in 2015.[7][8]
References
- ↑ Mythili Rao, "Chinelo Okparanta: Champion of the Stifled". The Daily Beast, August 19, 2013.
- 1 2 3 Rae Winkelstein-Duveneck, "Religion, The Bible, and Personal Morality: An Interview with Chinelo Okparanta", The Iowa Review, March 19, 2013.
- ↑ Ligaya Mishan, "How She Left: ‘Happiness, Like Water,’ by Chinelo Okparanta" (review), The New York Times Book Review, September 15, 2013.
- ↑ Ron Charles, "Lambda Awards honor best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books", Washington Post, June 2, 2014.
- ↑ "Candidates announced for Etisalat Prize for Literature", The Nation, 14 December 2014.
- ↑ "Great Artistry Brought to Bear: Chinelo Okparanta is short-listed for the Etisalat Prize as she joins the faculty of Southern New Hampshire University's MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction program", GlobeNewswire, 28 January 2015.
- ↑ Anjali Enjeti, "Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta review – love in the time of Biafra. Okparanta delivers a gripping novel about a young gay woman’s coming of age in Nigeria during the Nigerian civil war", The Guardian, September 24, 2015.
- ↑ Carol Anshaw, "‘Under the Udala Trees,’ by Chinelo Okparanta" (Sunday Book ), The New York Times, October 23, 2015.