Nigerian literature
Encyclopedia
Nigeria
has produced many prolific writers. Many have won accolades for their writing
abilities, including Daniel O. Fagunwa
, Chinua Achebe
, Wole Soyinka
, Femi Osofisan
, Ken Saro-Wiwa
, Cyprian Ekwensi
, Buchi Emecheta
, Elechi Amadi
Ben Okri
Critically acclaimed writers of a younger generation include Chris Abani
, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
, Sefi Atta
, Helon Habila
, Helen Oyeyemi
, Nnedi Okorafor, Kachi A. Ozumba
, Sarah Ladipo Manyika
, and Chika Unigwe
.
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
has produced many prolific writers. Many have won accolades for their writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
abilities, including Daniel O. Fagunwa
Daniel O. Fagunwa
Daniel Olorunfẹmi Fagunwa MBE , popularly known as D.O. Fagunwa, was a Nigerian author who pioneered the Yoruba language novel. He was born in Oke-Igbo, Ondo State. An Oloye of the Yoruba people, Fagunwa studied at St. Luke's School, Oke-Igbo and St...
, Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe
Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe popularly known as Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic...
, Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
, Femi Osofisan
Femi Osofisan
Babafemi Adeyemi Osofisan is a Nigerian writer known for his critique of societal problems and his use of African traditional performances and surrealism in some of his novels. A frequent theme his novels explore is the conflict between good and evil...
, Ken Saro-Wiwa
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro Wiwa was a Nigerian author, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize...
, Cyprian Ekwensi
Cyprian Ekwensi
Cyprian Ekwensi, MFR was a Nigerian short story writer and author of children's books.-Early life, education and family:Ekwensi, an Igbo, was born in Minna, Niger State...
, Buchi Emecheta
Buchi Emecheta
Dr Buchi Emecheta is an African novelist who has published over 20 books, including Second-Class Citizen , The Bride Price , The Slave Girl and The Joys of Motherhood...
, Elechi Amadi
Elechi Amadi
Elechi Amadi is a Nigerian author who has written five African novels - The Concubine, The Great Ponds, The Slave , Isiburu and Estrangement...
Ben Okri
Ben Okri
Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri has become the leading figure of his generation of Nigerian writers who have largely abandoned the social and historical themes of Chinua Achebe, and brought together modernist narrative strategies and Nigerian oral and literary...
Critically acclaimed writers of a younger generation include Chris Abani
Chris Abani
Christopher Abani is a Nigerian author. Abani's first novel, Masters of the Board, was about a Neo-Nazi takeover of Nigeria...
, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer.Her family is of Igbo descent. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.-Early life and education:...
, Sefi Atta
Sefi Atta
Sefi Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1964, to a family of five children. Her father Abdul-Aziz Atta was the Secretary to Federal Government and Head of the Civil Service until his death in 1972, and she was raised by her mother Iyabo Atta....
, Helon Habila
Helon Habila
Helon Habila is a Nigerian novelist and poet. He won the Caine Prize for African fiction in 2001, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2003....
, Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Olajumoke Oyeyemi is a British novelist. She was born in Nigeria and raised in London.She wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at school studying for her A levels at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School....
, Nnedi Okorafor, Kachi A. Ozumba
Kachi A. Ozumba
Kachi A. Ozumba is a Nigerian-born novelist and short story writer. He won the Arts Council England's Decibel Penguin Prize in 2006 and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2009...
, Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Sarah Ladipo Manyika is an Anglo-Nigerian writer. She was raised in Nigeria and has lived in Kenya, France, and England. Her writing includes published essays, academic papers, book reviews and short stories. Sarah's first novel, In Dependence, was published by Legend Press in 2008...
, and Chika Unigwe
Chika Unigwe
Chika Unigwe is a Nigerian-born author and she writes in English and Dutch.Chika Unigwe has a Ph.D in Literature from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Her debut novel, De Feniks was published in 2005 by Meulenhoff and Manteau and was shortlisted for the Vrouw en Kultuur debuutprijs...
.