Nigerian Writers Awarded Prestigious Literature Prizes

Two Nigerian writers, Teju Cole and Helon Habila, have recently won 2015 Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes in the fiction category.


According to PM News, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library announced the winners of the literature prizes at Yale University. The writers, who come from nine countries, were chosen confidentially in three categories (fiction, non-fiction and drama).

Besides the acknowledgement of their literary achievements, each of the winners will receive $150,000 to support his or her work.


Teju Cole is the author of two works of fiction “Open City” and “Every Day Is for the Thief”. In both of his works, he presents his understanding of the Diaspora and the dislocation in the 21st century. Born in the United States to Nigerian parents, Cole was raised in Lagos but currently lives in New York City.


Helon Habila is the author of three novels. The former Arts Editor at Vanguard Newspaper rose to international acclaim after publishing his novel “Waiting for an Angel” which has won many prizes including the Caine Prize in 2001.

His second novel “Measuring Time” (2007) won the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction.
In 2011, Habila published his latest novel “Oil on Water” which deals with environmental pollution in the oil-rich Nigeria and edited “The Granta Book of the African Short Story”.

Now Helon Habila is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at George Mason University.

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