The SUNY Ulster Herbert H. & Sofia P. Reuner Library Writers Series is a special program begun in 1998, sponsored by The Ulster Community College Foundation, that brings renowned writers to campus every fall. This is a truly unique opportunity for SUNY Ulster students and community members to hear award winning authors read from their work.
Okey Ndibe
November 9, 2017
10:15am - 11:30am
College Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall
Richard Cattabiani, Professor of English, will moderate the discussion.
Nigerian-born Okey Ndibe is a novelist, memoirist, political commentator, and essayist. He is the author of Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the making of a Nigerian American; and the novels Arrows of Rain and Foreign Gods, Inc. His award winning journalism has appeared in The New York Times, BBC online, Al Jazeera online, Financial Times, Fabian Society Journal, and the (Nigerian) Daily Sun, where his widely syndicated weekly column appears. Ndibe first came to the US to be the founding editor of African Commentary, a US-based international magazine published by the late great novelist Chinua Achebe.
Read
- Articles by Okey NdibeA list of journalist contributions to newspapers, magazines and websites.
Never Look an American in the Eye by Publication Date: 2016Okey Ndibe's funny, charming, and penetrating memoir tells of his move from Nigeria to America, where he came to edit the influential (but forever teetering on the verge of insolvency) African Commentary magazine. It recounts stories of Ndibe's friendships with Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, and tells of Okey's own development as a novelist and examines the differences between Nigerian and American etiquette and politics.
Arrows of Rain by Publication Date: 2015Set in a fictitious post-colonial African nation, the discovery of the body of a drowned prostitute leads to an exploration of the conflict between an individual and the modern African state. A gripping study of truth, silence and the abuse of power.
Foreign Gods, Inc. by Publication Date: 2014Foreign Gods, Inc., tells the story of Ike, a New York-based Nigerian cab driver who sets out to steal the statue of an ancient war deity from his home village and sell it to a New York gallery. A meditation on the dreams, promises and frustrations of immigrant life; the nature and impact of religious conflicts; and the ways in which modern culture creates or heightens infatuation with the 'exotic.'
Recording of Event
Watch
Previous Guest Writers include: Sapphire, Abigail Thomas and Kim Wozencraft, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Diane Ackerman, Jaimy Gordon, Da Chen, Michael Cunningham, David Rakoff, Francine Prose, Carolyn Forché, Billy Collins, Joyce Carol Oates, Gail Godwin, Tess Gallagher, Philip Levine, Gerald Stern, Gioia Timpanelli