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Primary Sources

Fiction    |    Poetry    |    Plays    |    Screenplays    |    Articles & Essays
Dissertation    |    Interviews    |    In Translation    |    Audiobooks    |    Miscellaneous

Fiction

Novels & Novellas
  • Masters of the Board (Enugu: Delta, 1984).
  • Sirocco (Nigeria: Swan, 1987).
  • GraceLand (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004).
  • Becoming Abigail (New York: Akashic Books, 2006).
  • Song for Night (New York: Akashic Books, 2007).
  • The Virgin of Flames (New York: Penguin, 2007).
Short Fiction
  • 'The Lion', Statesman Newspaper (Owerri), 1978.
  • 'Jazz Petals', in Burning Words, Flaming Images: Poems and Short Stories by Writers of African Descent, vol. 1, ed. Kadija Sesay (London: S.A.K.S. Publications, 1996), pp. 22-27.
  • 'Becoming Abigail', in IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain, ed. Courttia Newland & Kadija Sesay (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2000), pp. 247-253.
  • 'Such Sweet Thunder', Story Quarterly (Fall 2002). Also published in em two.
  • 'A Conversation over Tea', in Stumbling and Raging: More Politically Inspired Fiction, ed. Stephen Elliott & Greg Larson (San Francisco: MacAdam & Cage Publishing, 2005), pp. 105-106.
  • 'Albino Crow', Callaloo 30.3, 'Prose Fiction and Non-Fiction Prose: A Thirtieth Anniversary Issue' (Summer 2007), pp. 721-729. Also in Best African American Fiction 2009, ed. Gerald Lyn Early & E. Lynn Harris (New York: Bantam Books, 2009), pp. 8-20.
  • 'Three Letters, One Song & A Refrain', Daedalus 137.1 (Winter 2008), pp. 87-91. Also published in Best African American Fiction 2010, ed. Gerald Early & Nikki Giovanni (New York: One World Books, 2009), pp. 20-26.
  • 'From Four Movements', Callaloo 34.3 (Summer 2011), pp. 682-697.

Extracts from Fiction
  • 'The Plot to Blow Up Nigeria', Vanguard, 15 June 1986, p. 12. An extract from Masters of the Board.
  • 'Safekeeping', PEN America 8, issue on 'Making Histories' (2008), pp. 126-128. An extract from Song for Night.
  • From Becoming Abigail, in Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing, ed. Rob Spillman (New York: Penguin, 2009).
  • From Song for Night, Index on Censorship 39.4 (December 2010), p. 165.
  • 'Friday - Excerpted from a novel in progress', Sentinel Nigeria 5 (February-April 2011).

Edited Fiction
  • Lagos Noir (Akashic Books, forthcoming).

 

Poetry

Collections of Poetry
  • Kalakuta Republic (London: Saqi Books, 2000).
  • Daphne's Lot (Los Angeles: Red Hen Press, 2003).
  • Dog Woman (Los Angeles: Red Hen Press, 2004).
  • Hands Washing Water (Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2006).
  • Sanctificum (Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2010).
  • There Are No Names for Red (Los Angeles: Red Hen Press, 2010).
  • Feed Me the Sun: Collected Long Poems (Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2010).
Poems in Journals, Books & Anthologies
  • [Title unknown], in The Fire People: A Collection of Contemporary Black British Poets, ed. Lemn Sissay (Edinburgh: Payback Press, 1998).
  • 'Revelation', Callaloo 26.3 (Summer 2003), p. 707. Also in Dog Woman.
  • 'Strange Fruit', Callaloo, 26.3 (Summer 2003), p. 708. Also in Dog Woman.
  • 'Ode to Joy' (from Kalakuta Republic), '1971' & 'People Like Us' (from Daphne's Lot), in Creativity in Exile, ed. Mike Hanne (Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2004), pp. 32-34. Also read by Chris Abani on the accompanying DVD.
  • 'Fire', Ploughshares 30.4 (Winter 2004-2005), p. 9. Also in Hands Washing Water.
  • 'Dog Woman' (from Dog Woman), Seattle Review 27.1 (2005).
  • 'Stabat Mater', in Voices in Wartime Anthology: A Collection of Narratives and Poems, ed. Andrew Himes & Jan Bultmann (Seattle: Whit Press, 2005), p. 149. Also in Daphne's Lot.
  • 'Howl', in Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa, ed. Nii Ayikwei Parkes & Kadija Sesay (London: flipped eye publishing & African Writers Abroad, 2005), p. 31. Also in Hands Washing Water.
  • 'Sanctificum' (from Sanctificum) and 'There Are No Names for Red' (sections I to VI of There Are no Names for Red), Diode 1.1 (Fall 2007).
  • 'From Sanctificum', Blackbird 6.2 (Fall 2007). An early version of the opening poem of the section 'Renewal'.
  • 'There Are No Names for Red' (sections I, II, III, VI, XI & XVI of There Are No Names for Red), Sentinel Poetry 59 (November 2007).
  • 'There Are No Names for Red' (sections II, VIII, XI & XXIII of There Are No Names for Red), World Literature Today 81.6 (November-December 2007), p. 45.
  • 'Om' (from Sanctificum), Redivider 6.2 (Spring 2009).
  • 'Elephants', SPECS Journal of Art and Culture 2.1 (2009), pp. 11-12.
  • 'Histories', SPECS Journal of Art and Culture 2.1 (2009), pp. 13-16.
  • 'Say Something about Child's Play', in Between Water and Song: New Poets for the Twenty-first Century, ed. Norman Minnick (Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2010). Also in Hands Washing Water.
  • 'Four Poems', Narrative Magazine (Winter 2010).
  • 'Ode to Joy' (from Kalakuta Republic), in Fire and Ink: An Anthology of Social Action Writing, ed. Frances Payne Adler, Debra Busman & Diana García (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2009).
  • 'Heavensgate' (from Kalakuta Republic), in Fire in the Soul: 100 Poems for Human Rights, ed. Dinyar Godrej (Oxford: New Internationalist, 2009), pp. 14-15.
  • 'Mbubu', in So Much Things to Say: 100 Calabash Poets, ed. Kwame Dawes & Colin Channer (New York: Akashic Books, 2010), p. 45.
Note: Chris Abani has also published work (mainly poetry) in the following journals: Revolver: Literair Tijdschrift 118 (2003), Pool: A Journal of Poetry 2 (2003), Solo 6 (2004), Solo 7 (2005), Runes: Signals (January 2005), Crate: UCR's Literary Magazine 1 (Spring 2005), Hayden's Ferry Review 37 (Fall-Winter 2005-2006), Eleven Eleven 4 (2007), Oregon Literary Review 2.2 (Summer-Fall 2007), Redivider 6.2 (Spring 2009), Eclipse, Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry NZ 25, Poetry NZ 27, Sable & 580 Split. If you have more information about these contributions, please do not hesitate to let me know.

 

Plays

  • Room at the Top (Imo State Broadcasting Station, Nigeria, 1985). Television.
  • Song of a Broken Flute, dir. Chris Abani (Imo State University, Nigeria, 1990). Performance.
  • The Poet, The Soldier, The Lover and The Paper-Kite Maker, dir. Chris Abani & Antonia Carneval (The Actors' Gang, Los Angeles, USA, 2003). Performance.

 

Screenplays

  • Fela! (Focus Features and Film 4, forthcoming).

 

Articles & Essays

  • 'Mapping Obscurity: Excavating Meaning Base Materials and the African Literary Tradition', International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 1.1 (Summer-Fall 2003), pp. 121-132.
  • 'Resisting the Anomie: Exile and the Romantic Self', in Creativity in Exile, ed. Mike Hanne (Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2004), pp. 21-30.
  • 'The Lottery', New York Times Magazine, 1 February 2004, p. 74.
  • 'Africans can't shake mythic past in contemporary collection', review of The Prophet of Zongo Street, by Mohammed Naseehu Ali, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 August 2005.
  • 'Layer Me This / In Schichten, bitte', in Parkett 76: Julie Mehretu, Yang Fudong, Lucy McKenzie (2006).
  • 'Abigail and My Becoming', Truthdig, 19 April 2006.
  • 'Of Ancestors and Progeny: Moments in Nigerian Literature', Black Issues Book Review 8.6 (November-December 2006), pp. 24-25.
  • 'Divided hearts', review of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu, Los Angeles Times, 4 March 2007. Also published as 'Dante, Beatrice in a narrative of immigration', Baltimore Sun, 11 March 2007.
  • 'A Good African', PEN America 8, issue on 'Making Histories' (2008), pp. 34-35.
  • 'Schrottgeburt aus Dreck und Feuer', trans. into German by Felix Denk & Alex Rühle, in Megacitys: Die Zukunft der Städte, ed. Alex Rühle (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2008), pp. 15-23. A German version of 'Lagos: A Pilgrimage in Notations'.
  • 'Der diebische Engel', in Megacitys: Die Zukunft der Städte, ed. Alex Rühle (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2008), pp. 154-160.
  • 'American Empire: A Libretto in Eight Movements' , in How They See Us: Meditations on America, ed. James Atlas (New York: Atlas & Co Publishers, 2008), pp. 175-185.
  • [Title unknown], in I Live Here, by Mia Kirshner, J.B. MacKinnon, Michael Simons & Paul Shoebridge (New York: Pantheon Books, 2008).
  • 'Love Letter', PEN America 9 (2008), pp. 33-34. On Chinua Achebe.
  • Review of Slumberland, by Paul Beatty, Los Angeles Times, 15 June 2008.
  • 'What Men Aren't Telling Us', O: The Oprah Magazine, July 2008.
  • 'Coming to America: A Remix', Tarpaulin Sky 14 (Summer 2008). Also in Experiences of Freedom in Postcolonial Literatures and Cultures, ed. Annalisa Oboe & Shaul Bassi (Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2011), pp. 117-121.
  • 'When we cannot look away', Age, 18 October 2008, p. 16.
  • 'Omar Sharif Comes to Nollywood: A Storyboard in 10 Frames', in Nollywood, by Pieter Hugo [images], Chris Abani, Zina Saro-Wiwa & Stacy Hardy [text] (Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2009), pp. 7-16.
  • Foreword to the CLMP Literary Press and Magazines Directory 2009/2010, by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (Los Angeles: Red Hen Press, 2009).
  • 'Ethics and Narrative: the Human and Other', Witness 22, issue on 'Dismissing Africa' (2009), pp. 167-173.
  • 'Lagos: A Pilgrimage in Notations', in African Cities Reader I: Pan-African Practices, ed. Ntone Edjabe & Edgar Pietersepp (Cape Town: African Centre for Cities & Chimurenga, 2010), pp. 1-8.
  • 'Another Country', in Bound to Last: 30 Writers on Their Most Cherished Book, ed. Sean Manning (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2010), pp. 192-199.
  • 'For Chris Akunda', Pilgrimages, 3 July 2010.
  • 'Lo scrittore e la capra' (Italian version of 'The Writer and the Goat'), Internazionale 893 (15-21 April 2011).
  • [Essay on oil in the Niger Delta], Marie Claire (Italy) (May 2011), p. 74.
  • 'Las Vegas: The Last African City', in African Cities Reader II: Mobilities & Fixtures, ed. Ntone Edjabe & Edgar Pieterse (Cape Town: African Centre for Cities & Chimurenga, 2011), pp. 89-91.
  • 'Humanity's willing curator', Mail & Guardian, 7 October 2011.
  • 'Chinua Achebe: My Complicated Literary Father', Wall Street Journal, 25 March 2013.
  • 'Our Living Ancestor: Chris Abani Remembers Chinua Achebe', Daily Beast, 26 March 2013.

 

Dissertation

  • 'The Myth of Fingerprints: Signifying as Displacement in Derek Walcott's Omeros', PhD dissertation, University of Southern California, USA, May 2006, 142 pp. (incl. 67 pp. on Walcott, and an appendix containing Daphne's Lot, pp. 68-142).

 

Interviews

In Journals, Books & Magazines

  • 'Growing Up in the Shadow of Guns', in Voices in Wartime Anthology: A Collection of Narratives and Poems, ed. Andrew Himes & Jan Bultmann (Seattle: Whit Press, 2005), pp. 138-148. Extracts from an interview with Rick King.
  • Interview with Tayari Jones, Believer (April 2004). Also published as 'Tayari Jones with Chris Abani', The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers, ed. Vendela Vida (San Francisco: McSweeney's, 2005). Also included in the revised and expanded edition of this book, 2008, pp. 9-23.
  • 'Coming to Elvis', by Sherry Ellis, Bloomsbury Review 25.1 (January-February 2005), pp. 22-23. Also published in Illuminating Fiction: Today's Best Writers of Fiction, ed. Sherry Ellis (Los Angeles: Red Hen Press, 2009).
  • 'Chris Abani and Colm Tóibín in Conversation', Bomb 96 (Summer 2006), pp. 30-35.
  • Interview by Daisy Hernández, Colorlines (November-December 2006).
  • Interview with Kate Durbin, Elegant Variation (literary weblog), 4 April 2007.
  • Interview, Literate Nubian, web magazine (circa 2006), no longer online.
  • 'Lidija Dimkovska s Chrisom Abanijem: Pisatelj v izgnanstvu', interview by Lidija Dimkovska, Sodobnost 71.2&3 (February-March 2007), pp. 245-255.
  • 'Awards Do Not Make Good Writers', by Morenike Taire, Vanguard, 2007. Also published on AfricanWriter.com, 21 May 2007.
  • 'Cristina García', by Chris Abani, Bomb 99 (Spring 2007), pp. 34-37.
  • Interview with Juliet C. Kinkade, Mary Magazine (Spring 2007).
  • 'Stray Questions for: Chris Abani', by Dwight Garner, New York Times, 22 June 2007.
  • 'At the Confluences', interview by Amatoritsero Ede, Sentinel Poetry 59 (November 2007).
  • 'A Conversation with Chris Abani', by Sarah Shook & Laura Brink, World Literature Today 2 (2008).
  • 'International Dreamer: Chris Abani', by Carl Lindgren, Map Magazine, 5 December 2008.
  • 'An Interview with Chris Abani', by Amanda Aycock, Safundi 10.1 (January 2009), pp. 1-10.
  • 'A Conversation with Chris Abani', by Patty Paine, Blackbird 8.1 (Spring 2009).
  • Writing Matters 9.3 (Spring 2009), pp. 3-4.
  • 'Q&A with Nigerian author Chris Abani', by Paige Parker, Daily Bruin, 3 May 2009.
  • 'Compassion, Courage, and Doubt... You Know, the Small Stuff: An interview with Nigerian Writer Chris Abani', by Jeff Severns Guntzel, Utne Reader (June 2010).
  • 'Encounters: Chris Abani', by Marie Elizabeth Mali, Union Station Magazine (July 2010).
  • 'Chris Abani', Time Out, special issue on 'Celebrating Nigeria at 50' (October 2010), p. 73.
  • 'A conversation with Chris Abani', by Unoma Azuah, Sentinel Nigeria 5 (February-April 2011).

Radio, Television & DVD Interviews

  • 'Chris Abani: Interview', in Creativity in Exile, ed. Mike Hanne (Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2004). DVD. Also includes readings of the poems 'Ode to Joy' (from Kalakuta Republic), '1971' & 'People Like Us' (from Daphne's Lot).
  • 'Some Angels: Chis Abani and Dennis Phillips', interview by Leonard Schwartz and reading from Dog Woman, Cross-Cultural Poetics, KOAS FM, 2004. Audio. Released on CD (Olympia: KAOS Radio & Evergreen State College, 2004).
  • Interview, Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, 22 March 2004. Audio.
  • 'Chris Abani in Conversation with Richard Wolinsky', Bookwaves, KPFA, 8 April 2004. Audio. Recorded on 26 February 2004.
  • Interview by Michael Krasny, Forum, KQED, 31 May 2004. Audio.
  • 'The model of African wars', Voices in Wartime (2005, documentary film). Video & transcript.
  • 'Author Walter Mosely introduces Chris Abani's book, Graceland', Today, NBC News, 26 January 2005. Video & transcript.
  • Interview by Elizabeth Austen, The Beat, KUOW, 28 February 2005. Audio.
  • 'Interview with Chris Abani', by David Inge, Focus 580, WILL-AM 580, 3 April 2006. Audio.
  • 'PEN and Telling', Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC, 28 April 2006. Audio.
  • Interview, Tavis Smiley, KQED World, 11 July 2006. Audio.
  • 'Becoming Abigail: Chris Abani's Next Novel', by Farai Chideya, News & Notes, NPR, 19 May 2006. Audio & transcript.
  • 'Song for Night Highlights Hope, Despair', by Michel Martin, Tell Me More, NPR, 4 October 2007. Audio & transcript.
  • 'Writer Chris Abani Taps Geopolitics, Emotions', by Farai Chideya, News & Notes, NPR, 7 November 2007. Audio & transcript.
  • Interview with Gabriela Jauregui, ARTSblock Live!, KCET, 28 January 2008. Audio.
  • 'Chinua Achebe and Chris Abani', by Leonard Lopate, Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, 26 February 2008. Audio.
  • Interview by Andrew Denton, Enough Rope, ABC (Australia), 6 October 2008. Transcript, audio file & video excerpt.
  • Interview with Rafael F.J. Alvarado, Blogtalkradio, 9 August 2010. Audio.
  • 'Searching for Democracy: What the Future Holds', UCTV, 5 September 2011.
  • 'Chris Abani, Nigerian Writer and Political Activist', by Steve Scher, Weekday, KUOW (NPR), 5 April 2011. Audio. Extracts also broadcast as 'Best Of Weekday: Chris Abani and Paul Farmer', by Steve Scher, Weekday, KUOW (NPR), 5 October 2011.

 

In Translation

Fiction

GraceLand

  • GraceLand, trans. into German by Thomas Brückner (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2004).
  • GraceLand, trans. into Italian by Laura Prandino & Isabella Zani (Milan: Terre Di Mezzo, 2006).
  • GraceLand, trans. into French by Michèle Albaret-Maatsch (Paris: Albin Michel, 2008).
  • GraceLand, trans. into Swedish by Roy Isaksson (Lund: Celanders Förlag, 2009).

Becoming Abigail

  • Postajuci Abigail: Novela, trans. into Bosnian by Senada Kreso (Sarajevo & Zagreb: Ajfelov Most, 2007).
  • Abigail: Una storia vera, trans. into Italian by Angela Gibbon & Daniela Guardamagna (Rome: Fanucci, 2008).
  • Abigails liv, trans. into Swedish by Roy Isaksson (Lund: Celanders Förlag, 2008).
  • Le corps rebelle d'Abigail Tansi, translated into French by Anne Wicke (Paris: Albin Michel, 2010).

Song for Night

  • Canzone per la Notte, trans. into Italian by Sara Marinelli (Rome: Fanucci, 2010).
  • Comptine pour l'enfant-soldat, trans. into French by Anne Wicke (Paris: Albin Michel, 2011).
  • Nattens sång, trans. into Swedish by Roy Isaksson (Lund: Celanders Förlag, 2010).

The Virgin of Flames

  • L'ambigua follia di Mr Black, trans. into Italian by Nicoletta Brazzelli (Rome: Fanucci, 2007).

 

Poetry

From Kalakuta Republic & Daphne's Lot

  • Maar mijn hart is onvergangkelijk, trans. into Dutch by Jabik Veenbaas (Amsterdam: Wagner & Van Santen, 2003). Poems in English and in Dutch translation.

 

Audiobooks
  • GraceLand, read by Chris Abani, 11 CDS / 9 cassettes, unabridged, approx. 12 hours and 30 minutes (Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, 2005).

 

Miscellaneous
  • 'Chris Abani, Nigeria', by Iris Pronk, Trouw, 17 June 2003. In Dutch. Chris Abani comments on his poem 'Things to Do in London When You Are Dead'.
  • 'Call for Submissions: Lagos Noir', Naijablog, 1 June 2007.
  • 'The Importance of the Humanities: Viewpoints', Humanities (Spring 2009), p. 2.

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