Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright.
He is the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award, the PEN Hemingway Book Prize, and a Guggenheim Award..
His poetry collections are Sanctificum , There Are No Names for Red , Feed Me The Sun: Collected Long Poems , Hands Washing Water , Dog Woman , Daphne\'s Lot , and Kalakuta Republic .
His fiction includes The Secret History of Las Vegas , Song For Night , The Virgin of Flames , Becoming Abigail , GraceLand , and Masters of the Board .
He has resided in the United States since 2001.
Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and English mother, he grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria, received a BA in English from Imo State University, Nigeria, an MA in English, Gender, and Culture from Birkbeck College, University of London, and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California.
Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright
