Ben Okri
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 976974 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Ben Okri |
| NOMBRES | Ben |
| APELLIDO | Okri |
| FIRMA | BEN OKRI |
| AFILIACIONES | Transnational Press London |
| VERIFICADO | No |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 17 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 4 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 17 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1989 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 1 |
An Interview with Ben Okri
Write with New Urgency
"Write with New Urgency"A Conversation with Ben Okri February 2022 Click for larger view View full resolution Click for larger view View full resolution Click for larger view View full resolution Author of The Famished Road, among other books, Ben Okri has never been a run-of-the-mill writer. He has been hailed as "a literary and social visionary," and his oeuvre—novels, plays, poetry, haiku, stories—probe essential truths of our times. Creativel…
I can't breathe
Reflections by the Nigerian writer and critic Ben Okri on the worldwide impact of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minnepolis police
Performances, Acknowledgments, and Dinner
The Muse of Archaeology
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Canopy
CanopyA Stoku Ben Okri (bio) I had gone looking for them in the hotel where they were staying. I had just arrived, but they were in their rooms. I went into the hotel with a desire for somewhere to sleep. I thought of big beds with clean white sheets. I went into the hotel lobby and came to an area where the tables were being laid out. I took off my trousers and coat and hid them above on a tarpaulin canopy. Then I encountered one of the senior w…
Food, Ritual, and Death
Food, Ritual, and Death Ben Okri (bio) Human life is perched constantly on a mystery. We do not witness our birth and we are absent at our death. These two great ellipses shape the core of our existence. We are held tremulous in the stretch of unknowing. The things we know for an absolute fact are few. We know, sometimes, that we live, we exist. We intuit that we shall die. All we know about with any certainty is now, this ever moving, ever still…
A Fragment
A Fragment Ben Okri (bio) There is an island in the South Pacific where giant stone images of the human head stand inexplicably on the rocks. Many legends surround these imposing images, but no one really knows how they came there, why they were made, or what they mean. They remain one of the great enigmas of man’s passage on this hieroglyphic territory of the earth. There is in France a cave where images of bulls leap on the stone walls, vivid a…
Ancient Ties of Karma
Ancient Ties of KarmaA Stoku Ben Okri (bio) It was a clear bright day and there were these two men who were about to have a duel. One had a long knife and the other had a short sword that curved sharply at the end. The one with the knife was younger, cockier, and a little wild. He was very sure of himself. The one with the longer weapon was older, more civilised, and did not want the fight, and did everything to avoid it. But the younger one forc…
Some Thoughts on the Stoku as a Form
Some Thoughts on the Stoku as a Form Ben Okri (bio) 1. The Stoku is an amalgam of the short story and the haiku. 2. It disregards the seventeen syllable requirement in favour of the two other conditions of the haiku, the weather, or atmosphere, and the flash, or brush of perception. 3. It is the smallest unit of fictionality. 4. It is story as it inclines towards a flash of a moment, insight, paradox, or vision. 5. Its nature is enigma as it find…
A Sinister Perfection
A Sinister Perfection Ben Okri (bio) Hyacinth had always wanted a doll’s house. As soon as she was old enough, she asked her parents for one. Her mother was doubtful of the idea; she thought it would distract her daughter from the real life. Her father thought it would be a charming distraction, that it would provide a useful education in running a house. He was so taken with the notion of a doll’s house as a kind of parallel instruction in house…
Some Aphorisms
Some Aphorisms Ben Okri (bio) 1. Reading slowly reveals the hidden dimensions of a text. 2. The essential thing is freedom. A people cannot be great or fulfilled without freedom. A literature cannot be great without it either. 3. The basic prerequisite for literature is freedom. The first freedom is mental freedom. 4. It is possible to be free in the world and unfree in your head. 5. The most striking thing about great literature is the strength …
Amina Abstracted
Amina AbstractedA New Play Ben Okri (bio) Prologue: (sung or spoken) Who knows what happenedIn the past?We weren’t there.Who knows what is happening now?You in the future,You aren’t here. History is a dreamThat once was real.But drama makes that dreamInto something you can feel. Nothing is past, nothing is goneIf you have that rare thing, imagination. Scene 1 Chorus of market-women and -men at the gates of the city. [End Page 1037] Market-woman O…
Slept Badly
Slept Badly: A Love Poem, and: Reveal, and: Awake the Stone Ben Okri (bio) Slept Badly: A Love Poem Slept quite badly.Worked all morning.Love the view from your window.Jewels scattered in the night.Want to see the view from your heart. Magic connections will abound.A high force set in motion,In spite of what you think.High force set in motion.Connecting above and below.Above in the unseen.Below in the unknown. I drift in and out of your essence.R…
From The Age of Magic
The Famished Road
So long as we are alive, so long as we feel, so long as we love, everything in us is an energy we can use. He is born into a world of poverty, ignorance and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel it, endure it, know it and love it. This is his story
Literary reviews
Stray foreigners Baumgartner's Bombay. Anita Desai, London: Heinemann. 1988. 230pp. £10.95hb Tearing the Punjab Days of the Turban. Partap Sharma, London: Futura. 1988. 385pp. £4.95pb Ice‐Candy Man. Bapsi Sidhwa, London: Heinemann. 1988. 277pp. £11.95hb Privileged insulation Plans for Departure. Nayantara Sahgal, London: Penguin. 1987. 216pp. £3.95pb Mistaken Identity. Nayantara Sahgal, London: Heinemann. 1988. 194pp. £10.95hb Celebration and lam…
I can't breathe
Reflections by the Nigerian writer and critic Ben Okri on the worldwide impact of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minnepolis police
From The Age of Magic
Literary reviews
Stray foreigners Baumgartner's Bombay. Anita Desai, London: Heinemann. 1988. 230pp. £10.95hb Tearing the Punjab Days of the Turban. Partap Sharma, London: Futura. 1988. 385pp. £4.95pb Ice‐Candy Man. Bapsi Sidhwa, London: Heinemann. 1988. 277pp. £11.95hb Privileged insulation Plans for Departure. Nayantara Sahgal, London: Penguin. 1987. 216pp. £3.95pb Mistaken Identity. Nayantara Sahgal, London: Heinemann. 1988. 194pp. £10.95hb Celebration and lam…
The Famished Road
So long as we are alive, so long as we feel, so long as we love, everything in us is an energy we can use. He is born into a world of poverty, ignorance and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel it, endure it, know it and love it. This is his story
From The Age of Magic
The Muse of Archaeology
A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Canopy
CanopyA Stoku Ben Okri (bio) I had gone looking for them in the hotel where they were staying. I had just arrived, but they were in their rooms. I went into the hotel with a desire for somewhere to sleep. I thought of big beds with clean white sheets. I went into the hotel lobby and came to an area where the tables were being laid out. I took off my trousers and coat and hid them above on a tarpaulin canopy. Then I encountered one of the senior w…
Food, Ritual, and Death
Food, Ritual, and Death Ben Okri (bio) Human life is perched constantly on a mystery. We do not witness our birth and we are absent at our death. These two great ellipses shape the core of our existence. We are held tremulous in the stretch of unknowing. The things we know for an absolute fact are few. We know, sometimes, that we live, we exist. We intuit that we shall die. All we know about with any certainty is now, this ever moving, ever still…
A Fragment
A Fragment Ben Okri (bio) There is an island in the South Pacific where giant stone images of the human head stand inexplicably on the rocks. Many legends surround these imposing images, but no one really knows how they came there, why they were made, or what they mean. They remain one of the great enigmas of man’s passage on this hieroglyphic territory of the earth. There is in France a cave where images of bulls leap on the stone walls, vivid a…
Ancient Ties of Karma
Ancient Ties of KarmaA Stoku Ben Okri (bio) It was a clear bright day and there were these two men who were about to have a duel. One had a long knife and the other had a short sword that curved sharply at the end. The one with the knife was younger, cockier, and a little wild. He was very sure of himself. The one with the longer weapon was older, more civilised, and did not want the fight, and did everything to avoid it. But the younger one forc…
Some Thoughts on the Stoku as a Form
Some Thoughts on the Stoku as a Form Ben Okri (bio) 1. The Stoku is an amalgam of the short story and the haiku. 2. It disregards the seventeen syllable requirement in favour of the two other conditions of the haiku, the weather, or atmosphere, and the flash, or brush of perception. 3. It is the smallest unit of fictionality. 4. It is story as it inclines towards a flash of a moment, insight, paradox, or vision. 5. Its nature is enigma as it find…
A Sinister Perfection
A Sinister Perfection Ben Okri (bio) Hyacinth had always wanted a doll’s house. As soon as she was old enough, she asked her parents for one. Her mother was doubtful of the idea; she thought it would distract her daughter from the real life. Her father thought it would be a charming distraction, that it would provide a useful education in running a house. He was so taken with the notion of a doll’s house as a kind of parallel instruction in house…
Some Aphorisms
Some Aphorisms Ben Okri (bio) 1. Reading slowly reveals the hidden dimensions of a text. 2. The essential thing is freedom. A people cannot be great or fulfilled without freedom. A literature cannot be great without it either. 3. The basic prerequisite for literature is freedom. The first freedom is mental freedom. 4. It is possible to be free in the world and unfree in your head. 5. The most striking thing about great literature is the strength …
Amina Abstracted
Amina AbstractedA New Play Ben Okri (bio) Prologue: (sung or spoken) Who knows what happenedIn the past?We weren’t there.Who knows what is happening now?You in the future,You aren’t here. History is a dreamThat once was real.But drama makes that dreamInto something you can feel. Nothing is past, nothing is goneIf you have that rare thing, imagination. Scene 1 Chorus of market-women and -men at the gates of the city. [End Page 1037] Market-woman O…
Slept Badly
Slept Badly: A Love Poem, and: Reveal, and: Awake the Stone Ben Okri (bio) Slept Badly: A Love Poem Slept quite badly.Worked all morning.Love the view from your window.Jewels scattered in the night.Want to see the view from your heart. Magic connections will abound.A high force set in motion,In spite of what you think.High force set in motion.Connecting above and below.Above in the unseen.Below in the unknown. I drift in and out of your essence.R…
Performances, Acknowledgments, and Dinner
I can't breathe
Reflections by the Nigerian writer and critic Ben Okri on the worldwide impact of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minnepolis police
Write with New Urgency
"Write with New Urgency"A Conversation with Ben Okri February 2022 Click for larger view View full resolution Click for larger view View full resolution Click for larger view View full resolution Author of The Famished Road, among other books, Ben Okri has never been a run-of-the-mill writer. He has been hailed as "a literary and social visionary," and his oeuvre—novels, plays, poetry, haiku, stories—probe essential truths of our times. Creativel…
An Interview with Ben Okri
Art (14 obras) · Philosophy (10 obras) · Literature (9 obras) · History (8 obras) · Art history (7 obras) · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies (6 obras) · Aesthetics (5 obras) · Law (5 obras) · Psychology (5 obras) · Political science (4 obras)