Ben Okri: Chronology

Ben Okri: Chronology

Added by Leong Yew

African Postcolonial Literature

1959	born 15th March to Silver Oghekeneshineke Loloje Okri and Grace Okri in Minna, Nigeria
1960	Silver and Grace Okri leave for England to pursue a degree in law. Ben joins them two years later and attends primary school in London
1966	Ben Okri returns reluctantly to Nigeria with his mother
1972	Leaves secondary schooling at Urhobo College, Warri, to return to Lagos. He continues with his education privately
1978	Okri leaves Nigeria for England after failing to enter Nigerian Universities. In the interim he wrote a number of short stories, poems, and articles. Okri attends University of Essex where he read philosophy and English.
1980	While as an undergraduate student Okri publishes his first novel, Flowers and Shadows.
1981	Landscapes Within is published. During the 1980s, Okri worked as a freelance broadcaster for the BBC and as a poetry editor for the West Africa magazine.
1984	Awarded grant by the British Arts Council
1985	The short story collection, Incidents at the Shrine, is published.
1987	Publishes Stars of the New Curfew Wins the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Africa Wins the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction. Both awards are for Incidents at the Shrine
1991	The Famished Road is published The same book wins the Booker Prize
1992	Book of poetry, An African Elegy is published
1993	"Sequel" to The Famished Road, Songs of Enchantment, is published
1995	Astonishing the Gods published
1996	Dangerous Love published
1999	Infinite Riches published

Sources

Quayson, Ato. "Ben Okri." African Writers. Vol 1. Ed. C. Brian Cox. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. 599-608.
Bennett, Robert. "Ben Okri." Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. Eds. Pushpa Naidu Parekh and Siga Fatima Jagne. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. 364 - 373.

Last Modified:19 February 2002