Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto | |
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Born | Chinụalumugo Ezenwa-Ọhaeto Awka, Anambra |
Nationality | Nigerian |
Education | University of Nebraska-Lincoln (PhD) |
Alma mater | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 2009–present |
Notable work | The Teenager Who Became My Mother (2020) |
Parent |
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Chinụa Ezenwa-Ọhaeto is a Nigerian poet and academic.
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto was born in Awka, Anambra State, where his father Ezenwa-Ohaeto taught at Nnamdi Azikiwe University.[1] He grew up between Germany and Nigeria due to his father's profession.[1] He was named after Chinua Achebe,[1] who was his father's mentor.[2] While growing up, Ezenwa-Ohaeto envisioned becoming an inventor but changed his mind when he started reading his father's poems.[1] He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English Language and Literature at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University.[1][3] He is currently a PhD student for Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.[3]
In 2009, Chinua won the ANA/Mazariyya Teen Poetry Prize as a freshman at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.[1] He was a runner-up in 2014 for the Etisalat Prize for Literature, flash fiction category.[3] In 2017, he published a chapbook, The Teenager Who Became My Mother, via Sevhage Publishers.[4] In 2018, he won the Castello di Duino Poesia Prize for an unpublished poem and was the recipient of the New Hampshire Institute of Art's 2018 Writing Award,[5] as well as the recipient of a scholarship to the institute's MFA program,[3][1] though he could not attend due to financial constraints.[1] In 2019, he was the winner of the Sevhage/Angus Poetry Prize and second runner-up in the fifth Singapore Poetry Contest.[3]