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Another Nigerian Writer, Abani, Wins Foreign Prize

Uduma Kalu
Guardian News
11th March 2005

MORE international recognition has come the way of Nigerian writers abroad. After Chimamanda Adiche, Helon Habila and Chika Unigwe, another Nigerian, Chris Abani has joined the league of international award winners.

Last Monday, Abani was named winner of the 2005 Hemingway/PEN Award for his novel 'Graceland'. JFK Library will host the 2005 Hemingway/PEN and L.L. Winship/PEN New England Literary Awards edition of the ceremonies, which will feature Pulitzer prize-winning author, Richard Russo, as keynote speaker.

Also, the Los Angeles Times has named 'GraceLand' a finalist for the 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in fiction. The announcement of the awards was made in the U.S. media.

A message from the JFK Library in Boston, United States , said that "on Sunday, April 10, PEN/New England and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum will honour Abani as the 2005 recipient of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for a distinguished first book of fiction Graceland (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)".

The ceremony will also honour such writers as Kevin Goodan, Swanee Hunt and Edward J. Delaney as recipients of the 2005 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, given yearly to an author from New England or to an author whose writing includes a New England setting. Mr. Goodan is being recognised in the poetry category for In the Ghost House Acquainted, Ms. Hunt is being honoured in the non-fiction category for This Was Not Our War and Mr. Delaney is being honoured in the fiction category for Warp & Weft. The L.L. Winship/PEN Award honours long-time Boston Globe editor, Laurence L. Winship and is sponsored by the Boston Globe and PEN/New England.

Finalists in the competition for the 2005 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award were Laurie Lynn Drummond for Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You (Harper Collins); and Samina Ali for Madras on Rainy Days (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Runners-up were Jerome Richard for The Kiss of the Prison Dancer (The Permanent Press) and Hannah Tinti for Animal Crackers (The Dial Press). Abani and other competition finalists and runners-up receive Ucross Residency Fellowships at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, a retreat for artists and writers.

Honours that had earlier come the way of Abani include: 2005 - Finalist, Best Books Category (Africa Region), Commonwealth Writers Prize; 2005 - Pushcart Nomination for "Blooding", StoryQuarterly; 2003 - Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship, USA; 2003 - Hellman/Hammet Grant from Human Rights Watch, USA; 2002 - Imbonge Yesizwe Poetry International Award, South Africa; 2001 - PEN USA West Freedom - to - Write Award, USA; 2001 - Prince Claus Award for Literature & Culture, The Netherlands; 2001 - Middleton Fellowship, University of Southern California, USA; 1983 - Delta Fiction Award, Nigeria.

Abani's novels are GraceLand (FSG, 2004/Picador 2005) and Masters of the Board (Delta, 1985). His poetry collections include Dog Woman (Red Hen, 2004), Daphne's Lot (Red Hen, 2003) and Kalakuta Republic (Saqi, 2001). He teaches in the MFA Program at Antioch University, Los Angeles and is a visiting assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside . A Middleton fellow at the University of Southern California, he is the recipient of the 2001 PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the 2001 Prince Claus Award; a 2003 Lannan Literary Fellowship and the 2005 PEN Hemingway Book Prize.

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