WOLE SOYINKA was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1934, he is an author, playwright, poet, and political activist whose prolific body of work includes The Interpreters, his debut novel that was published in 1965, and Death and the King's Horseman, a play that was first performed in 1976. Soyinka was twice jailed in Nigeria for his criticism of the Nigerian government, and he destroyed his U.S. Green Card in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.
View titles by Wole Soyinka
WINNER
| 1986 Nobel Prize
WINNER
| 1983 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
"A lovely, magical book." --The Washington Post
"A brilliant imagist who uses poetry and drama to convey his inquisitiveness, frustration, and sense of wonder." --Newsweek
Brilliant. . . . Transcendant. . . . It locates the lost child in all of us, underneath language, inside sound and smell, wide-eyed, brave and flummoxed. . . . Soyinka belongs in the company of . . . V. S. Naipaul, V. S. Pritchett, and Vladimir Nabokov." --The New York Times
"A delightful memoir." --The Atlantic
"Unquestionably Africa's most versatile writer and arguably her finest. . . . Ake is a classic of African autobiography, indeed a classic of childhood memoirs wherever and whenever produced." --The New York Times Book Review
WOLE SOYINKA was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1934, he is an author, playwright, poet, and political activist whose prolific body of work includes The Interpreters, his debut novel that was published in 1965, and Death and the King's Horseman, a play that was first performed in 1976. Soyinka was twice jailed in Nigeria for his criticism of the Nigerian government, and he destroyed his U.S. Green Card in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.
View titles by Wole Soyinka
Awards
WINNER
| 1986 Nobel Prize
WINNER
| 1983 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
Praise
"A lovely, magical book." --The Washington Post
"A brilliant imagist who uses poetry and drama to convey his inquisitiveness, frustration, and sense of wonder." --Newsweek
Brilliant. . . . Transcendant. . . . It locates the lost child in all of us, underneath language, inside sound and smell, wide-eyed, brave and flummoxed. . . . Soyinka belongs in the company of . . . V. S. Naipaul, V. S. Pritchett, and Vladimir Nabokov." --The New York Times
"A delightful memoir." --The Atlantic
"Unquestionably Africa's most versatile writer and arguably her finest. . . . Ake is a classic of African autobiography, indeed a classic of childhood memoirs wherever and whenever produced." --The New York Times Book Review
