At A Glance

Novels

things fall apart
1958
a man of the people
1966
no longer at ease
1960
anthills of the savannah
1987
arrow of god
1964
the african trilogy
1988

Education

  • BA (London), University College, Ibadan, 1948-1953

Historical Biographies

there was a country
2012

Teaching Positions Held

  • Brown University, 2010-2013, David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies
  • Bard College, 1990-2009, Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Literature
  • Dartmouth College, January-March 1990, Montgomery Fellow and Visiting Professor of English
  • The City College of the City University of New York, 1989, Visiting Distinguished Professor of English
  • The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1987-1988, Fulbright Professor of African Studies
  • The Anambra State University of Technology at Enugu, 1986-1988, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council
  • The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 1985-2013, Professor Emeritus of English
  • The University of Guelph, Canada, 1984, Visiting Professor of English
  • The University of California at Los Angeles, 1984, Regents Professor of English
  • The University of Nigeria Nsukka, 1976-1983, Professor of English
  • The University of Connecticut, 1975-1976, University Professor of English
  • The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1972-1975, Visiting Professor of English
  • The University of Nigeria Nsukka, 1967-72, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies

Short Stories

the sacrificial egg
1962
girls at war
1972
african short stories
1985
contemporary african short stories
1985

Honorary Doctorates

  • Dartmouth College, U.S.A, 1972, D.Litt
  • Southampton University, England, 1974, D.Litt
  • Stirling University, Scotland, 1975, D. Univ.
  • Prince Edward Island University, Canada, 1976, LL.D
  • The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U. S. A., 1979, D.H.L.
  • The University of Ife, Nigeria, 1979, D.Litt
  • The University of Kent, England, 1981, D.Litt
  • The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria, 1981, D.Litt
  • Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, Canada, 1984, D.Litt
  • University of Guelph, Canada, 1984, D.Litt
  • Franklin Pierce College, New Hampshire, U.S.A., 1985, D.Litt
  • Lagos State University, Nigeria, 1988, D.Litt
  • Westfield College, Westfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1989, D.H.L.
  • The Open University, Great Britain, 1989, D.Litt
  • University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 1989, D.Litt
  • Georgetown University, U.S.A., 1990, LL.D
  • University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, 1991, LL.D
  • Skidmore College, U.S.A., 1991 D.Litt
  • The New School for Social Research, U.S.A., 1991, D.H.L.
  • Hobart and William Smith Colleges, U.S.A., 1991, D.H.L.
  • Marymount Manhattan College, U.S.A., 1991, D.H.L.
  • City College, City University of New York, U.S.A., 1992, D.Litt
  • Westfield State University, Massachusetts, 1992, D.Litt
  • Colgate University, U.S.A., 1993, D.H.L.
  • Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1994, D.Litt
  • State University of New York, Binghamton, U.S.A., 1996, D.Litt
  • Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, U.S.A., 1996, D.Litt
  • Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1996, D.Litt
  • Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U. S. A., 1997, D.Litt
  • Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, U.S.A., 1997, D.Litt
  • Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, U.S.A., 1999, D.Litt
  • Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A., 1999, D.Litt
  • University of Witswatersrand, South Africa, 2000, D.Litt
  • Haverford College, Pennsylvania, 2001, D.Litt
  • Cape Town University, South Africa, 2002, D.Litt
  • Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, 2002. D.H.L
  • University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2006, D.Litt
  • University of Toronto, Canada, 2006, D.Litt
  • University of Sokoto, Nigeria, 2007, D.Litt
  • Nnamdi Azikiwe University, 2009, D.Litt
  • Lesley University, Massachusetts, 2010, D.Litt

Children’s Books

chike and the river
1966
how the leopard got his claws
1972
the flute
1983
the drum
1983

Other Honors (Select List)

  • Margaret Wrong Memorial Prize, 1959
  • Nigerian National Trophy, 1960
  • Rockefeller Fellowship, 1960
  • Langston Hughes Medallion, 1962
  • UNESCO Fellowship, 1963
  • Jock Campbell-New Statesman Award, 1965
  • Commonwealth Poetry Prize, 1973
  • Honorary Member, Modern Language Association, 1974
  • Neil Gunn Fellow of the Scottish Arts Council, 1975
  • Lotus Award for Afro-Asian Writers, 1975
  • Hon. Fellow, Modern Language Association of America, 1975
  • Nigerian National Merit Award, 1979
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, London, 1981
  • Founding President, Association of Nigerian Authors, 1981
  • Member, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1982
  • Member, Royal Society of Literature, 1983
  • Commonwealth Foundation Senior Visiting Practitioner, 1983
  • Hon. Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1983
  • Commonwealth Foundation Award, 1984
  • Callaloo Award, 1989
  • CHINUA ACHEBE DAY, May 25, 1989, proclaimed by the President of the Borough of Manhattan, New York City.
  • Member, 7-man International Jury appointed by the Indian Government to award the annual Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, 1989-92
  • Member, Academy of Sciences, USSR, 1990
  • Major Street in University Town Nsukka renamed CHINUA ACHEBE Road in 1990.
  • Achebe’s sixtieth year marked with an International Symposium by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, February 12-14 1990.
  • Visiting Fellow and Ashby Lecturer, Clare Hall, Cambridge University, 1993
  • International Nonino Prize, 1994
  • Order of Kilimanjaro, awarded by African Overseas Union, Houston, Texas, 1996
  • Campion Medal, 1996
  • Honorary Citizenship of The City of Austin, Texas, 1997
  • World Bank Presidential Fellows Lecturer, 1997
  • Honorary Vice President, Royal African Society, London, 1998
  • CHINUA ACHEBE DAY, February 14, 1998, proclaimed by the Mayor of the City of Washington, D.C.
  • McMillan Lecturer, Harvard University, 1998
  • Founding Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letters, 1999
  • Odenigbo Lecturer, Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Nigeria, 1999
  • National Creativity Award (NCA), Nigeria, 1999
  • Avenue leading to State House in Anambra State Capital, Awka, named CHINUA ACHEBE Avenue in 1999.
  • Achebe’s seventieth year marked with an International Symposium by Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, November 3-4, 2000.
  • German Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, 2002
  • Phyllis Wheatley Award, Harlem Book Fair, 2004.
  • Associate Member, Academy of American Poets, 2004.
  • “The New African,” Selected Chinua Achebe as one of the Greatest Africans
  • Major Road connecting Ogidi to Onitsha in Anambra renamed CHINUA ACHEBE Rd in 2008.
  • Man Booker International Prize, 2007
  • The National Arts Club, Medal of Honor for Literature, 2007
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, The Schomberg, New York.
  • Inducted into the Nigerian Hall of Fame, 2010
  • Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, 2010
  • Shortlisted, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (US) for The Education of a British-Protected Child

Poetry

beware soul brother
1972
aka weta
1982
another africa
1998
collected poems
2004

Editor/Publisher

  • Founding Editor/Publisher, Okike: An African Journal of New Writing, 1972
  • Founding Editor/Publisher, Uwa Ndi Igbo: A bilingual journal of Igbo life and culture
  • Founding Editor, African Writers Series, Heinemann, London 1962-72 (The first 100 titles)

Criticism/Essays

morning yet on creation day
1975
the trouble with nigeria
1983
hopes and impediments
1988
home and exile
2000
education of a british protected child
2009

Exhibitions

  • Another Africa Photographs by Robert Lyons, Poems by Chinua Achebe. Silver Eye Center for Photography and Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild.  November 6, 2002-January 18, 2003.

Book-length Studies of Achebe (Selected)

  • Carroll, David.  Chinua Achebe, Novelist, Poet, Critic. London: Macmillan; New York: St Martins, 1980
  • Coussy, Denise. L’oeuvre de Chinua Achebe.  Paris: Presence Africaine, 1985
  • Ezenwa-Ohaeto. Chinua Achebe: A Biography. Oxford: James Currey; Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1997
  • Gikandi, Simon. Reading Chinua Achebe. London: James Currey; Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Nairobi, Kenya: Heinemann, 1991
  • Innes, C.L. Chinua Achebe. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1983
  • Innes, C.L. and Bernth Lindfors, eds., Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. Washington: Three Continents, 1978; London: Heinemann, 1979
  • Killam, G.D. The Writings of Chinua Achebe.  London: Heinemann, 1977
  • Lindfors, Bernth, ed., Approaches to Teaching Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1991
  • Lindfors, Bernth, ed., Conversations with Chinua Achebe. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997
  • Lindfors, Bernth and Bala Kothandaraman, eds., South Asian Responses to Chinua Achebe. New Delhi: Prestige Books International, 1993
  • Muoneke, Romanus, Okey. Art, Rebellion, and Redemption. New York:  Peter Lang, 1994
  • Petersen, K.H. and Anna Rutherford, eds., Chinua Achebe: A Celebration. Oxford and Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann 1991
  • Turkington, Kate.  Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart.  London: Arnold, 1977
  • Wren, Robert, M.  Achebe’s World: The Historical and Cultural Context of the Novels of Chinua Achebe. Washington: Three Continents; Harlow: Longman, 1980
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