Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor Chigozie Obioma is the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing. He was born in Akure, Nigeria. His two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were finalists for The Booker Prize and have been translated into 30 languages. He has won an LA Times book prize, the prestigious Internationaler Literaturpris, FT/Oppenheimer prize for fiction, an NAACP Image award and has been nominated for two dozen prizes for fiction. He was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers in 2015 and served as a judge of the Booker prize in 2021. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, Guardian, Financial Times, TheParis Review, Kenyon Review, Granta, and elsewhere. He is also the program director of the Oxbelly Fiction Writers retreat. His third novel, The Road to the Country was published in 2024. Education Education: I have a Master in English Language and Literature with a specialization on African Literature from Cyprus International University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan.
