The poem "Ode to Joy" on a wall in the Dutch city of Leiden
Christopher Abani (born 27 December 1966) is a Nigerian-American and Los Angeles- based author. He says he is part of a new generation of Nigerian writers working to convey to an English-speaking audience the experience of those born and raised in "that troubled African nation".
Abani published his first novel, Masters of the Board, in 1985 at the age of 16.[2] It was a political thriller, the plot of which was an allegory based on a coup that was carried out in Nigeria just before it was written. He was imprisoned for six months on suspicion of an attempt to overthrow the government.[3] He continued to write after his release from jail, but was imprisoned for one year after the publication of his 1987 novel Sirocco.[4] During this time, he was held at the infamous Kiri Kiri prison, where he was tortured.[5] After he was released from jail this time, he composed several anti-governmentplays that were performed on the street near government offices for two years. He was imprisoned a third time and was placed on death row.[6] However, his friends had bribed government officials for his release in 1991, and immediately Abani, his mother, and his four siblings moved to the United Kingdom, living there until 1999.[7] He then moved to the United States, where he now lives.[8]
His book of poetry, Sanctificum (2010) which was published by Copper Canyon Press, is a sequence of linked poems, bringing together religious ritual, the Igbo language of his Nigerian homeland, and reggae rhythms in a postracial, liturgical love song.
Abani's foray into publishing has led to the formation of the Black Goat poetry series, which is an imprint of New York-based Akashic Books.[10] Poets Kwame Dawes, Christina Garcia, Kate Durbin, Karen Harryman, Uche Nduka, Percival Everett, Khadijah Queen and Gabriela Jauregui have all been published by Black Goat.[11]
In the summer of 2016, a broad selection of his works was published in Israel by the small independent publishing house Ra'av under the title Shi'ur Geografia (Hebrew for "Geography Lesson"), edited by Noga Shevach and the poet Eran Tzelgov. The collection received great reviews and offered Hebrew readers a first encounter with the poetry of Abani.
In 2007, The Virgin of Flames[20] and Song for Night[21] were Editor's Choice picks for The New York Times. The Virgin of Flames was also a Barnes & Noble Discovery Selection,[22] and Becoming Abigail was a New York Libraries Books For Teens Selection.[23]
^Timberg, Scott (18 February 2007). "Living in the 'perfect metaphor'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 January 2009. But even before he became one of the rare Ugandans [sic] in the Phoenix Inn and one of the few blacks living in East L.A., Abani was what he calls 'an outsider's outsider'. He grew up in small Nigerian cities, the son of an Igbo educator father and a white English-born mother who had met at Oxford, where she was a secretary and he was a post-doc student. Raised Roman Catholic, Abani studied in the seminary as a teenager.
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