Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria in 1930. His first work, Things Fall Apart was hugely influential and has been translated into over forty languages. Achebe’s subsequent novels include No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, and Anthills of the Savannah which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His work includes the volumes of poetry Beware, Soul Brother and Christmas in Biafra, the short-story collection Girls at War, and the children’s book How the Leopard Got His Claws. In 1971 Achebe helped to found the influential literary magazine Okike, which he edited in the United States from 1972, having accepted the post of Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His other writings include the essay collections Morning Yet on Creation Day, which he later expanded under the title Hopes and Impediments; and The Trouble with Nigeria. Chinua Achebe has received more than twenty honorary doctorates and he is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 2007 Chinua Achebe won the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction.
