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.
Vanessa Guignery is professor of contemporary British and postcolonial literature at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon in France. She is author of Seeing and Being: Ben Okri's "The Famished Road" and the editor of "The Famished Road": Ben Okri's Imaginary Homelands and of a special issue of Callaloo on Ben Okri. In 2022, she edited a special issue of the journal Etudes Anglaises on contemporary Nigerian literature.
Introduction Chronology Ben Okri Jane Wilkinson / 1986 and 1990 An Interview with Ben Okri Pietro Deandrea / 1990 and 1992 An Interview with Ben Okri Carolyn Newton / 1992 Whisperings of the Gods: An Interview with Ben Okri Delia Falconer / 1996 An Interview with Ben Okri Charles H. Rowell / 2005 "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting": An Interview with Ben Okri Nana Yaa Mensah / 2008 Points of Enchantment Sarah Fulford / 2008 Interview with Ben Okri Rosemary Gray / 2011 Ben Okri: Interview Saskia Vogel / 2011 The Mysteries of the Word: A Conversation with Ben Okri Anderson Tepper / 2011 Ben Okri in Conversation Vanessa Guignery and Catherine Pesso-Miquel / 2012 Painter of Secrets Anupama Raju / 2012 Lookin Back: James Ogude in Conversation with Ben Okri James Ogude / 2014 An Interview with Ben Okri Vanessa Guignery / 2015 Ben Okri Q&A: "I Can't Live without Good Conversation, Or Love" New Statesman / 2018 Ben Okri on His "Unavoidably" Political Poems Ushnota Paul / 2019 Ben Okri Interview: We Can Ascend Mountains Marc-Christoph Wagner / 2019 The Past Is a Changing Entity Isabelle Ruef / 2020 "Courage Is a Luxury" Katrien Steyaert / 2020 Ben Okri on Perception and Illusion Deborah Treisman / 2021 Ben Okri: "Nations Like Ours Have a Hard Time Looking Back Truthfully" Dorian Lynskey / 2021 In Conversation with Ben Okri Rosemary Gray / 2021 "Write with New Urgency": A Conversation with Ben Okri Anderson Tepper / 2022 Ben Okri on the Ambiguity of Reality Deborah Treisman / 2022 Ben Okri or the Aesthetics of Suspicion Vanessa Guignery / 2022 Ben Okri on Manipulating Reality Katherine Hu / 2023 Index
