ALUMNI NEWS

Creative Writing Alumna Wins the 2008 Wole Soyinka Prize

For Nnedi Okorafor (PhD Creative Writing, 2007), winning the 2008 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa has been, "like a great big embrace from the continent and a proud nod from the ancestors and attentive spirits. Now I can return to my work with that much more confidence in what I’m doing."

Considered Africa’s Nobel Prize, The Soyinka Prize was established by the Lumina Foundation in 2005 and named for the Nigerian playwright, poet and political activist. The prize also includes a $20,000 cash award.

Winning was also a whirlwind experience that included thousands of miles of air travel to Nigeria, an impromptu family reunion, an elaborate festival and a conversation with Wole Soyinka himself, whom Okorafor calls one of her "greatest heroes."

Just days before the November 2 ceremony, Okorafor received an e-mail letting her know that her first novel, Zahrah the Windseeker (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) was one of three finalists for the Soyinka award. About three days before the event, she received a plane ticket to Nigeria. Forty-eight hours after her arrival in Lagos, she found herself back in Chicago just in time to cast her vote in the November 4 election.

Nnedi Okorafor enjoys a moment with Nobel Laureate
Wole Soyinka at the awards ceremony in Lagos, Nigeria.

As soon as she stepped off the airplane, Nigeria’s heat found her, as did her uncle and many aunts and cousins who all came to the airport to greet her. Just a few hours later, she was at the awards ceremony, sitting at a table with her family, DVD camera in hand to capture the dramatic and musical performances and readings of the evening. On her blog, "Nnedi’s Wahala Zone," she explains how her recording shows very literally the blur of the unexpected win. "(S)uddenly," she writes, "there I was holding a big cardboard check and blinded by camera flashes."

Like her whirlwind trip to Nigeria, the novel for which she won the Soyinka Prize has been described as magical and dreamlike. Set in Nigeria, Zahrah the Windseeker is a young adult fantasy novel infused with the myths, folklore and culture of West Africa. Narrated by Zahrah, it tells the story of a fourteen year-old outsider teased for the vines that grow in her hair, which she later discovers signify her ability to fly.

Born in the United States to Nigerian parents, and a dual citizen herself, Okorafor is equally at home in both countries. Before earning her bachelor’s in creative writing at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, she had expected to turn her childhood loves of science and math into a career in entomology or veterinary science. A track and tennis star in high school, she still works out everyday. "Mix all this together," she says, "and it’s no surprise that I’ve ended up writing plant and creature-inhabited literary science fiction and fantasy set in Nigeria or places like it with strong feminist and environmental themes. And it’s no surprise that my characters tend to be individuals living on cultural borders who have some kind of amazing ability."

Okorafor completed her PhD at UIC in 2007. Of the UIC Creative Writing Program, she says, "It was tough… but I really loved it. I like a good challenge. It was good to step out of my comfort zone; it’s the only way to grow." From Cris Mazza, her dissertation advisor, and Eugene Wildman, she learned "a lot about the craft of writing. They taught me that there are rules to fiction writing. They taught that though these rules are shape shifters, they are still rules." She also recalls how Luis Urrea demonstrated the power of storytelling in how he conducted his classes. David Schaafsma, she says, "was also extremely helpful when it came to any questions I had about young adult literature."

Okorafor has several new novels in different stages of completion, including Stormbringer, a "sort of sequel" to her second novel, The Shadow Speaker (Hyperion Children’s Books, 2007). Penguin Books recently purchased her Sunny and the Leopard People, "a fantasy novel set in present day Nigeria. The main character is an albino girl based on an amazing Nigerian girl I spent some time with a few years ago," she says.

The magical themes of Okorafor’s work continue, as does the magic of her stories for others. Due out in early 2009, Long Juju Man, "about a girl’s experiences with a very annoying, tricky ghost," is the winner of her second literary prize, the Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa.

She currently teaches at Chicago State University.