Ben Okri

Sir Ben Okri is a poet, playwright, and novelist. Among his many accomplishments, he has published Booker Prize winner The Famished Road, and Astonishing the Gods which was selected as one of the BBC’s ‘100 novels that shaped our world.’ In 2018 he adapted Camus’ ‘The Outsider’ for The Coronet Theatre, to much critical acclaim, which won The Offies Award for Best Theatre Production. His most recent works include his environmental fable for all ages Every Leaf a Hallelujah, his novel The Last Gift of the Master Artists (a reworking of his novel Starbook), and his collection of stories, essays and poems about climate change, Tiger Work. His most recent novel, Madam Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted will be published by Head of Zeus in 2025.

He has published thirteen novels including The Freedom Artist, The Age of Magic and Dangerous Love, four books of short stories including Prayer for the Living, two collections of essays, and three volumes of poems including his most recent A Fire in My Head. He has invented a new form of storytelling called the ”Stoku”, which is a cross between the short story and the haiku. His works have been translated into 27 languages. He has been a Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature as well as an honorary Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford. He was awarded an OBE in 2001 and knighted for his services to literature in 2023.

Ben Okri’s books have won numerous international Prizes including the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Africa, the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the Chianti Ruffino-Antico Fattore International Literary Prize, and the Premio Grinzane Cavour Prize. The recipient of many honorary doctorates, he is a vice-president of the English Centre of International PEN and was presented the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum for his outstanding contribution to the Arts and to cross-cultural understanding.

He wrote the script for Peter Krüger’s film N: The Madness of Reason, which won the 2015 Ensor Award for Best Film. In 2020, his play, ‘Madame Sosotris,’ was performed to full houses at the Pulloff Theatres in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his recent play, Changing Destiny, at the Young Vic ran from July to August 2021. A new theater adaptation of The Famished Road also ran at The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm from April 22nd to May 2022.