Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe, the winner of the 2008 Mason Award, the Nigerian novelist, poet and critic whose book Things Fall Apart has earned worldwide readership and profoundly influenced several generations of African novelists. Currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, Things Fall Apart boasts more than eight million copies in print in more than 50 languages and has become the world's most widely read African novel. Achebe's other novels include No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, and Anthills of the Savannah. He has written several volumes of poetry, beginning with Beware, Soul Brother, a 1971 collection written in response to the Nigerian Civil War, and most recently including his Collected Poems in 2000. Among his notable nonfiction is the controversial 1975 essay "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness,'" and his children's books include Chike and the River, which addressed racism in depictions of African life. Achebe served from 1962-1972 as the general editor of the African Writers Series, a British publishing initiative that introduced post-colonial African writers to the world, and he helped found three literary magazines while teaching at the University of Nigeria: Okike; Nsukkascope; and Uwa Ndi Igbo. Achebe has also taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and he is currently the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

Events
Celebrating Chinua Achebe and African Writers
When: Mon, Sep 22, 10am – 11am
Where: Johnson Center Cinema, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA (map)
Description: Scholars from different parts of Africa discuss the work of Chinua Achebe and other African writers. A reception follows. Sponsored by Mason’s Global Affairs Program and New Century College.

Reception for Chinua Achebe
When: Mon, Sep 22, 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Where: Grand Tier III, Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA (map)
Description: The traditional food, music and dress of Nigeria are the hallmarks of this event, sponsored by Mason’s African Student Association.

Novelist Chinua Achebe
When: Mon, Sep 22, 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Where: Concert Hall, Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA (map)
Description: Nigerian novelist, poet and critic Chinua Achebe accepts the 2008 Mason Award, celebrating an author whose body of work has made extraordinary contributions to bringing literature to a wide reading public. The author also reads from Things Fall Apart, the most widely read and perhaps most profoundly influential African novel, on the 50th anniversary of its publication. Sponsored by Mason’s Office of University Life.