Chigozie Obioma

Chigozie Obioma at the 2016 Texas Book Festival

Chigozie Obioma (born 1986 in Akure ) is a writer , who with his debut novel The Fishermen, to German The Dark River , was known. The book has been translated into more than 26 languages.

life and work

Chigozie Obioma studied at Cyprus International University , which he graduated with an MA in 2012 . In 2014 he received an MFA from the University of Michigan . He teaches creative writing , fiction and poetry, and African literature at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln .

His novels are set in the present time in his native Nigeria and provide insights into the culture of the Igbo and Yoruba - ethnicities , Obioma also used sprinklings from the languages of the two peoples as well as Pidgin . He also interweaves Greek myths such as the Odyssey in the background . While his first novel can be described as a family story, his second book is a romance novel. In addition to his two novels, Chigozie Obioma published various short stories , essays and poetry in newspapers and magazines.

reception

Chigozie Obioma's debut novel The Dark River , published in 2015, attracted a lot of international attention. The book has been translated into over 20 languages ​​and has received numerous awards, including being on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize . Numerous media outlets around the world voted the book on their respective 2015 leaderboards, including the Wall Street Journal , the New York Times and the New Zealand Listener . The German wave it led in April 2015 Book recommendation of the month and the Guardian called The Dark River by far the best debut novel 2015. Chigozie Obioma was by critics as the heir Chinua Achebe called and Cormac McCarthy compared.

The Fisherman was adapted as a play by Gbolahan Obisesan . The premiere took place in July 2018 at the HOME Theater in Manchester. The Guardian listed it as one of the five must-see performances of the week in the week of its premiere.

In 2019 Obioma was again shortlisted for the Booker Prize with his second novel An Orchestra of Minorities . The author describes the height of a love story between a farmer's son and a "higher daughter" in Nigeria. The 500-page novel also received high critical praise, linguistically and dramatically. Nicolai von Schweder-Schreiner's translation work for The Weeping of the Birds also received a lot of praise.

Awards

• 2016: Best Debut Novel at the NAACP Image Awards
• 2015: Financial Times - Emerging Voices; Los Angeles Times Book Prize for best first work
• 2020: International Literature Prize - House of World Cultures for The Crying of the Birds , together with the translator Nicolai von Schweder-Schreiner

Publications (selection)

• The fishermen. Pushkin Press 2015, ISBN 978-0957548855
  • German: The dark river. From the English by Nicolai von Schweder-Schreiner . Construction Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-351-03592-1 .
• To Orchestra of Minorities . Little, Brown Book Group, London 2019, ISBN 9781405542029 .
  • dt .: The crying of the birds. Translated from the English by Nicolai von Schweder-Schreiner. Piper Verlag, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-492-05938-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Chigozie Obioma in the catalog of the German National Library
• Official Website of Chigozie Obioma (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chigozie Obioma. In: Iceland Writers Retreat. July 11, 2018, accessed January 6, 2019 (American English). 
2. ↑ Louisa Ermelino: Chigozie Obioma's Magical African Mystery Tour. In: Publisher's Weekly. August 18, 2018, accessed January 6, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Chigozie Obioma | Department of English | Nebraska. Retrieved January 3, 2019 . 
4. ↑ An Orchestra of Minorities: Why Chigozie Obioma's second novel is his best. Retrieved January 6, 2019 . 
5. ↑ The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2015 shortlist is revealed | The Man Booker Prizes. Retrieved January 3, 2019 . 
6. ↑ WSJ: WSJ's Best Books of 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Noted: The 100 best books of 2015 - The Listener. Retrieved January 6, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Tips from the literary editors - book recommendations April 2015. Accessed on January 6, 2019 (German). 
9. ↑ Alex Preston: The best novels of 2015 . In: The Guardian . December 6, 2015, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed January 6, 2019]).
10. ↑ Shireen Quadri: Chigozie Obioma: Transcribing the African literary consciousness. Retrieved January 6, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Andrew Pulver, Michael Cragg, John Fordham, Andrew Clements, Jonathan Jones: What to see this week in the UK . In: The Guardian . July 20, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed January 6, 2019]).
12. ↑ Obioma: "The Weeping of the Birds": Love that gets under your skin , review on deutschlandfunkkultur.de from November 26, 2019, accessed November 28, 2019
13. ^ High narrative art: Nigeria's literary star tells an African odyssey , MDR Kultur, accessed November 28, 2019
14. ↑ Variety Staff, Variety Staff: 'Straight Outta Compton,' 'Empire,' Michael B. Jordan Top NAACP Image Awards. In: Variety. February 6, 2016, accessed January 3, 2019 . 
15. ↑ Chigozie Obioma - Emerging Voices 2015 fiction winner. October 6, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2019 (UK English). 
16. ↑ Chigozie Obioma | Department of English | Nebraska. Retrieved January 6, 2019 . 
17. ↑ The International Literature Prize goes to six authors. In: ORF.at . June 4, 2020, accessed June 4, 2020 .