Helon Habila
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Helon Habila Ngalabak (born November 1967) is a Nigerian novelist and poet, whose writing has won many prizes, including the
Caine Prize The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 20 ...
in 2001. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria before moving in 2002 to England, where he was a
Chevening Scholar The Chevening Scholarship is an international scholarship, funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that lets foreign students with leadership qualities study at universities in the United Kingdom. History The Chevening Scholarship ...
at the
University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...
, and now teaches creative writing at
George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
, Fairfax, Virginia.


Background

Helon Habila was born in
Kaltungo Kaltungo is a Local Government Area of Gombe State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is in the town of Kaltungo in the west of the Local Government Area on the A345 highway at . It has a landmark area of 881 km and a population of 149,805 as at ...
,
Gombe State Gombe State ( ff, Leyddi Gommbe 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤺𞤮𞤥𞥆𞤦𞤫) is a state in northeastern Nigeria, bordered to the north and northeast by the state of Borno and Yobe, to the south by Taraba State, to the southeast by Adamawa State ...
, Nigeria. He studied English Language and Literature at the
University of Jos The University of Jos, abbreviated as Unijos, is a Federal University in Jos, Plateau State, central Nigeria. History What became the University of Jos was established in November 1971 from the satellite campus of the University of Ibadan. ...
and lectured for three years at the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi. In 1999 he went to
Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
to write for ''Hints'' magazine, moving to ''
Vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...
'' newspaper as Literary Editor.Biography
Helon Habila website.
Habila won the Music Society of Nigeria (MUSON) national poetry award for his poem "Another Age" in 2000, the same year his short story collection ''Prison Stories'' was published. He won the 2001 Caine Prize for a story from that collection, "Love Poems". His first novel, ''Waiting for an Angel'', was published in 2002, and the following year won the
Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
(Africa Region, Best First Book). Moving to England in 2002, Habila became African Writing Fellow at the
University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...
. In 2005 he was invited by
Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and ''magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...
to become the first Chinua Achebe Fellow at
Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...
, NY, where he spent a year writing and teaching, remaining in the US as a professor of creative writing at
George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...
in
Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...
. In 2006 he co-edited the
British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...
anthology ''New Writing 14''. His second novel, ''Measuring Time'', published in 2007, was nominated for the
Hurston-Wright Legacy Award The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards program honors Black writers in the United States and around the globe for literary achievement. Introduced in 2001, the Legacy Award was the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organizatio ...
, the IMPAC Prize, and in 2008 won the Virginia Library Foundation Prize for fiction. His third novel, ''
Oil on Water ''Oil on Water'' is a 2010 petrofiction novel by Nigerian author Helon Habila. The novel documents the experience of two journalists as they try to rescue a kidnapped European wife in the oil landscape of the Niger Delta. The novel explores theme ...
'' (2010), which deals with environmental pollution in the oil-rich Nigerian Delta, received generally positive review coverage.
Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, (born 28 May 1959) is a British author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'', jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first woman with Black ...
in ''The Guardian'' wrote: "Habila's prose perfectly evokes the devastation of the oil-polluted wetlands";
Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...
's review in ''The Independent'' said that "Habila has a filmic ability to etch scenes on the imagination", and Aminatta Forna in ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'' concluded: "Habila is a skilful narrator and a master of structure." ''Oil on Water'' was shortlisted for prizes including the Pen/Open Book Award, Commonwealth Best Book, Africa Region, and the Orion Book Award. Habila's anthology ''The Granta Book of the African Short Story'' came out in September 2011. Habila is a founding member and currently serves on the advisory board of
African Writers Trust The African Writers Trust (AWT) was established in 2009 as "a non-profit entity which seeks to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote sharing of skills and other resources, and to foste ...
,"Advisory Board"
African Writers Trust. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
"a non-profit entity which seeks to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote sharing of skills and other resources, and to foster knowledge and learning between the two groups.""What is African Writers Trust?"
African Writers Trust. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
Lamwaka, Beatrice
"Goretti Kyomuhendo of African Writers Trust"
, Afrolit, 22 May 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
From July 2013 to June 2014 Habila was a DAAD Fellow in
Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...
. He was appointed chair of the judging panel for the 2016
Etisalat Prize for Literature The 9mobile Prize for Literature (formerly the Etisalat Prize for Literature 2013–16) was created by Etisalat Nigeria in 2013, and is the first ever pan-African prize celebrating first-time African writers of published fiction books.
. Helon Habila was shortlisted for the
Grand Prix of Literary Associations The Grand Prix of Literary Associations (GPLA) were launched in 2013 in Cameroon, in partnership with Brasseries du Cameroun and sponsorship by Castel Group, Castel Beer. The GPLA are defined as bilingual English-and-French literary prizes, som ...
2019, with his work entitled ''Travelers''.


Early inspiration for writing

Growing up in a period of political dysfunction and military dictatorships, Helon Habila as a teenager in the 1980s was motivated to rebel and fight against this notion. Writing became his voice and a means of protest. It provided an avenue to express himself and his beliefs. Many times, he has tried to step away from his usual fight against injustice and write about different unrelated topics. Nevertheless, he has been unable to and stick to writing to reject injustice, oppression, and exploitation.


Cordite publishing company

Cordite Books is a new publishing company jointly owned by Habila and
Parrésia Publishers Parrésia, also Parrésia Publishers Ltd, is a publishing company in Nigeria founded by Azafi Omoluabi Ogosi and Richard Ali in 2012 with the aim of selling books to the Nigerian reading audience and promote the freedom of the imagination and th ...
. Their first project was to make a call for submissions in 2013 for quality crime fiction manuscripts, the best to receive US$1,000 and a publishing deal with distribution across the continent. In his early days, Habila grew up reading Nigerian books in
Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also * ...
and then
Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...
's Pacesetters series, which was popular pan-African fiction mostly about crime in urban areas. This resonated with the actual happenings in cities where there is always a fight for power, a struggle to be important and issues of class. This setting has been a recurring scene in his life. With this interest in crime fiction, Helon noticed a gap in the market as a lot of books in Nigeria were by serious literary writers such as
Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and ''magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...
. After that you would only find non-fiction, religious or motivational books. There was hardly any middle ground for entertainment books and that is where Cordite Books fills the gap for crime fiction.


Awards and honors

*2000 Music Society of Nigeria (MUSON) national poetry award *2001
Caine Prize The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 20 ...
, "Love Poems" *2003
Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
, Africa category, '' Waiting for an Angel'' *2007 Emily Clark Balch Prize (short story), from ''
Virginia Quarterly Review The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussion"'' ...
'', "The Hotel Malogo" *2008 Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction, ''Measuring Time'' *2011
Commonwealth Writers Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
, shortlist, ''
Oil on Water ''Oil on Water'' is a 2010 petrofiction novel by Nigerian author Helon Habila. The novel documents the experience of two journalists as they try to rescue a kidnapped European wife in the oil landscape of the Niger Delta. The novel explores theme ...
'' *2012
Orion Book Award ''Orion'' is a quarterly, advertisement-free, nonprofit magazine focused on nature, culture, and place addressing environmental and societal issues. It has published such authors as Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Michael Po ...
, shortlist, ''Oil on Water'' *2012
PEN/Open Book Award PEN/Open Book (known as the Beyond Margins Award through 2009) is a program intended to foster racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities, and works to establish access for diverse literary groups to the publishing i ...
, shortlist, ''Oil on Water'' *2015 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Fiction) valued at $150,000 *2019
Grand Prix of Literary Associations The Grand Prix of Literary Associations (GPLA) were launched in 2013 in Cameroon, in partnership with Brasseries du Cameroun and sponsorship by Castel Group, Castel Beer. The GPLA are defined as bilingual English-and-French literary prizes, som ...
, Shortlisted with '' Travelers''. *2020
James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...
, shortlist, ''Travelers''.


Bibliography

* '' Prison Stories'' (2000), Epik Books * '' Waiting for an Angel: A Novel'' (2004), Penguin Books. * ''New Writing 14'' (2006), Granta Books (co-edited with
Lavinia Greenlaw Lavinia Elaine Greenlaw (born 30 July 1962) is an English poet, novelist and non-fiction writer. She won the Prix du Premier Roman with her first novel and her poetry has been shortlisted for awards that include the T. S. Eliot Prize, Forward Pri ...
). * ''Measuring Time: A Novel'' (2007), W. W. Norton & Company. . * ''Dreams, Miracles, and Jazz: An Anthology of New Africa Fiction'' (2007), Pan Macmillan (co-edited with Kadija George). * ''
Oil on Water ''Oil on Water'' is a 2010 petrofiction novel by Nigerian author Helon Habila. The novel documents the experience of two journalists as they try to rescue a kidnapped European wife in the oil landscape of the Niger Delta. The novel explores theme ...
: A Novel'' (2010), Hamish Hamilton, . Published in the US (2011) by W. W. Norton & Company, * ''The Granta Book of the African Short Story'' (2011), Granta. ; * '' The Chibok Girls'' (2016), Penguin Books. , * '' Travelers: A Novel'' (2019), W. W. Norton & Company.


Further reading

* Press Release fo
"Writing Africa"
panel held at Bard College with
Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and ''magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...
,
Kofi Anyidoho Kofi Anyidoho (born 25 July 1947) is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists.
,
Emmanuel Dongala Emmanuel Boundzéki Dongala (born 1941) is a Congolese chemist and novelist. He was born in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, in 1941. He was Richard B. Fisher Chair in Natural Sciences at Bard College at Simon's Rock until 2014. As a chemist, his ...
, Helon Habila and
Caryl Phillips Caryl Phillips (born 13 March 1958) is a Kittitian-British novelist, playwright and essayist. Best known for his novels (for which he has won multiple awards), Phillips is often described as a Black Atlantic writer, since much of his fictional ...
, September 2005.
"The Making of Habila's 'Waiting For An Angel' — A Review"
by Isaac Attah Ogezi (African Writer, 9 September 2009), mentions how his love of literature endeared him to undergraduate lecturers such as
Obiwu Obioma Paul Iwuanyanwu (born 1962) known mononymously as Obiwu, is a Nigerian-American writer and professor. He is a survivor of the Igbo genocide in Nigeria (1966–1970), and teaches World Literature and Critical Theory in the Humanities Depar ...
, who in his poetry collection ''Rituals of the Sun'' referred to Habila and Toni Kan as his "literary soul-mates".


References


External links


Helon Habila's website
* Frank Bures
"Everything Follows: An Interview With Helon Habila"
''Poets & Writers'', January/February 2003
"Helon Habila"
Webcast at the Library of Congress, 1 May 2012.
Helon Habila profile
at ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' * Kenneth Okpomo
"In Pursuit of a Trailblazing Storyteller"
''Thresholds''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Habila, Helon 1967 births Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia George Mason University faculty Nigerian male novelists University of Jos alumni Nigerian male poets People from Gombe State 21st-century Nigerian novelists Bard College faculty Nigerian expatriate academics in the United States Caine Prize winners International Writing Program alumni Nigerian publishers (people) 21st-century male writers 21st-century Nigerian poets Chevening Scholars