Brittle Paper Presents: The Writing Room

Meet the speakers:

Ben Okri: Ben Okri is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, anthologist, aphorist, and playwright. He has also written film scripts. His works have won numerous national and international prizes, including the Booker Prize for Fiction. He has also received many honorary doctorates for his contribution to Literature.

Dr. Ainehi Edoro: Dr. Ainehi Edoro-Glines is a Nigerian academic of Esan descent. She is an Assistant Professor of English at the university of Wisconsin-Madison where she teaches and researches on African literature and digital culture, in addition to holding a joint appointment in the African Cultural Studies Department. She graduated summa cum laude in English from Morgan State University before going on to complete a PhD at Duke University. Dr. Edoro is the founder and Editor of Brittle Paper, a leading online platform dedicated to African writing and literary culture.

Ellah Wakatama, OBE, (Hon) FRSL: Ellah P. Wakatama is the chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African writing. She is also Editor-at-Large for Canongate Books and is the Creative Manchester Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. She was the founding Publishing Director of the Indigo Press, deputy editor of Granta magazine and Senior Editor at Jonathan Cape Random House. She has judged a number of international literary prizes including the International Dublin Literary Award and the Booker Prize.

Eghosa Imasuen: Eghosa Imasuen is novelist and short story writer, he was born in 1976 in Ibadan, Nigerian. He is the co-founder of Narrative Landscape Press Limited, a publishing company based in Lagos. His novel, Fine Boys, chronicles the voices of Nigeria’s post-Biafra generation. Eghosa studied medicine at the University of Benin. He lives in Lagos with his wife and twin sons.

Molara Wood: Molara Wood is a journalist, editor, and author of Indigo, a collection of short stories. She won the inaugural John La Rose Memorial Short Story Competition and received a Commonwealth Broadcasting Association award for her fiction. Her writings have appeared in anthologies including, One World: A Global Anthology, The New Gong Book of Nigerian Short Stories, A World of Our Own (Femrite Anthology), A Life in Full (2010 Caine Prize Anthology), and Route 234, an anthology of Nigerian travel writing.

Chimeka Garricks: Chimeka Garricks is a Nigerian-Irish writer born in Dublin and raised in Port Harcourt. His fiction includes: a novel, Tomorrow Died Yesterday and a collection of short stories, A Broken People’s Playlist, (which he wrote with the aid of music while trying to avoid working on another novel). He is also a lawyer and editor. His favorite writers include Chuma Nwokolo, Cyprian Ekwensi, Zukiswa Wanner, and Ben Elton.