Chris Abani
Author of Graceland
About the Author
Chris Abani is an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside.
Image credit: photo by Gregg Chadwick
Series
Works by Chris Abani
New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano) (African Poetry Book Fund) (2018) — Editor — 28 copies
Associated Works
McSweeney's Issue 49 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern): Cover Stories (2017) — Contributor — 57 copies
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa (2019) — Contributor — 42 copies
So Much Things to Say: 100 Poets from the First Ten Years of the Calabash International Literary Festival (2010) — Contributor — 24 copies
And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020) — Contributor — 12 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Abani, Chris
- Legal name
- Abani, Christopher
- Birthdate
- 1966-12-27
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Nigeria
- Birthplace
- Afikpo, Nigeria
- Places of residence
- Los Angeles, California, USA
London, England, UK
Afikpo, Nigeria - Education
- University of Southern California (MA, PhD - Literature and Creative Writing)
University of London (Birkbeck College)
Nigeria (BA - English) - Occupations
- professor
author
poet - Organizations
- University of California, Riverside
- Awards and honors
- Lannan Literary Fellowship (2003)
- Short biography
- Christopher Abani (or Chris Abani) (born December 27, 1966) is a Nigerian author. Abani's first novel, Masters of the Board, was about a Neo-Nazi takeover of Nigeria. The book earned one reviewer to praise Abani as "Africa's answer to Frederick Forsyth." The Nigerian government, however, believed the book to be a blueprint for an actual coup, and sent the 18-year-old Abani to prison in 1985. After serving six months in jail, he was released, but he went on to perform in a guerilla theatre group. This action led to his arrest and imprisonment at Kiri Kiri, a notorious prison. He was released again, but after writing his play Song of a Broken Flute he was arrested for a third time, sentenced to death, and sent to the Kalakuta Prison, where he was jailed with other political prisoners and inmates on death row. His father is Igbo, while his mother was English born. He spent some of his prison time in solitary confinement, but was freed in 1991. He lived in exile in London until a friend was murdered there in 1999; he then fled to the United States. He is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside. His most recent book of poetry, Sanctificum (Copper Canyon Press, 2010), is a book-length sequence of linked poems, bringing together religious ritual, the Igbo language of his Nigerian homeland, and reggae rhythms in a postracial, liturgical love song. Chris was recently hospitalized in Los Angeles for food poisoning, on the same day he was scheduled to speak at the Central Library in that city.
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Statistics
- Works
- 30
- Also by
- 13
- Members
- 1,472
- Popularity
- #17,454
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 50
- ISBNs
- 89
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 1
I especially loved the journal entries with recipes that served both corporal and spiritual needs, but found the overall plot a bit hard to follow.