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Contact Information: Annemarie Lewis
Kerwin Leigh DuPuy University
Communications |
Internationally Acclaimed Writer Chinua Achebe To Receive an Honorary Degree from UMass Boston(Boston, MA) Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart and other works which have shaped modern African literature, will receive an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston at its commencement exercises held on Saturday, June 1 at the Bayside Exposition Center at 10:30 a.m. Achebe is the author of five novels, including Anthills of the Savannah, A Man of the People, No Longer at Ease, and Arrow of God, as well as a book of short stories, children’s books, a book of poetry, and many literary and critical essays. His literary career has focused on the contact and conflict between the Nigerian and British cultures. His work has been translated into more than 50 languages and is taught in universities throughout the globe. Achebe played a leading role in the development of African literature as literary editor, publisher, and social activist. In 1971 he founded Okike: An African Journal of New Writing and in 1982, he founded the Association of Nigerian Writers, which has since set up prizes and publications to support new African writers. He has also played a significant role in the development of the Heinemann Writers Series. Achebe has been considered for the Nobel Prize in literature and, in 1987, was on the Booker Prize short list for his novel, Anthills of Savannah. In 1980, he received his country’s highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Order of Merit. Achebe was born in 1930 in what is now known as Nigeria. Achebe attended Government College, Umuahia and University College Ibadan, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1953. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Connecticut, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and is currently the Charles Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College since 1990. He currently resides in New York with his wife Christie Chinwe Achebe, nee Okoli. They have four children and two grandchildren. ### |
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