Conversations with Ben Okri / edited by Vanessa Guignery.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Guignery, Vanessa, editor.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Series:

Literary conversations series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Okri, Ben--Interviews.

Okri, Ben.

Authors, Nigerian--Interviews.

Authors, Nigerian.

Poets, Nigerian--Interviews.

Poets, Nigerian.

Screenwriters--Nigeria--Interviews.

Screenwriters.

Physical Description:

xxii, 222 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2024]

Summary:

"Conversations with Ben Okri collects twenty-six interviews that range from 1986 to 2023 and reflect the international resonance of Nigerian writer Ben Okri's work. The reader is given access to the various phases of Okri's life and career, beginning with his childhood (b. 1959) and upbringing in Nigeria and the publication of his early short stories and novels. The interviews also explore the tremendous success of The Famished Road (for which Okri became the first Black African writer to receive the Booker Prize in 1991) and the dazzling creativity of his subsequent work in a multiplicity of literary genres. The volume offers insight into the writer's creative process and his unique views on literature, history, memory, politics, freedom, spirituality, and environmental issues. The conversations often veer into fascinating philosophical discussions about the nature of art and reality, the value of myth, and the dynamics of storytelling. Since the publication of his first novel in 1980, Okri has encouraged his readers to open their minds and eyes to new modes of perceiving reality. Convinced of the universality of art, he has been intent on redreaming the world from a variety of perspectives in poems, essays, short stories, novels, and plays written over a period of more than forty years. Throughout his career, Ben Okri has never stopped experimenting with new forms, creating the stoku (a mixture of short story and haiku), endowing his fictional and nonfictional creations with poetic undertones, and collaborating with visual artists, musicians, and dancers"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Chronology

Ben Okri / Jane Wilkinson

An interview with Ben Okri / Pietro Deandrea

An interview with Ben Okri / Carolyn Newton

Whisperings of the gods: an interview with Ben Okri / Delia Falconer

An interview with Ben Okri / Charles H. Rowell

"The book of laughter and forgetting": an interview with Ben Okri / Nana Yaa Mensah

Points of enchantment / Sarah Fulford

Interview with Ben Okri / Rosemary Gray

Ben Okri: interview / Saskia Vogel

The mysteries of the word: a conversation with Ben Okri / Anderson Tepper

Ben Okri in conversation / Vanessa Guignery and Catherine Pesso-Miquel

Painter of secrets / Anupama Raju

Lookin back: James Ogude in conversation with Ben Okri / James Ogude

An interview with Ben Okri

Vanessa Guignery

Ben Okri Q&A: "I can't live without good conversation, or love" / New Statesman

Ben Okri on his "unavoidably" political poems / Ushnota Paul

Ben Okri interview: we can ascend mountains / Marc-Christoph Wagner

The past is a changing entity / Isabelle Rüf

"Courage is a luxury" / Katrien Steyaert

Ben Okri on perception and illusion / Deborah Treisman

Ben Okri: "Nations like ours have a hard time looking back truthfully" / Dorian Lynskey

In conversation with Ben Okri / Rosemary Gray

"Write with new urgency": a conversation with Ben Okri / Anderson Tepper

Ben Okri on the ambiguity of reality / Deborah Treisman

Ben Okri or the aesthetics of suspicion / Vanessa Guignery

Ben Okri on manipulating reality / Katherine Hu

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Conversations with ben okri

ISBN:

9781496851550

1496851552

9781496851567

1496851560

OCLC:

1402019171