One of Granta's six New Voices for 2012, CHINELO OKPARANTA grew up a Jehovah's Witness. She lived in Nigeria until the age of ten, when her family came to the United States. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she has also taught middle school, high school, and college.
2014 New York Public Library Young Lions Award Finalist
2014 Rolex Mentors and Protégés Arts Initiative Finalist in
Literature
2014 Lambda Awards General Lesbian Fiction Finalist
2013 Society of Midland Authors Award Finalist
2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award,
Long-listed
2013 Caine Prize in African Writing Finalist
Editors' Choice, New York Times Book Review
The Guardian's Best African Fiction of 2013
2012 United States Artists Fellowship Nominated Author "Full of
movement...These tales will break your heart open. Okparanta guides
you through her stories with lovely, surreal, haunting
clarity."
--New York Daily News "Okparanta is an unpretentious writer, but
her ambition comes through in the lives she renders--young Nigerian
women divided between home and a new world."
--Vogue.com "The stories in Okparanta's first collection are quiet,
often unnervingly so, in the manner of a stifled shriek...One
character notes the silences that fall between her and her mother,
'as if we no longer valued spoken words, as if spoken words were
gaudy finishes on a delicate piece of art, unnecessary distractions
from the masterpiece, whose substance was more meaningfully
experienced if left unornamented.' If this is Okparanta's goal -
the distillation of experience into something crystalline, stark
but lustrous - she is well on her way there."
--New York Times Book Review
"Chinelo Okparanta was chosen as one of Granta's six new voices for
2012, and it's easy to see why. Her short story collection,
Happiness, Like Water (Mariner), is a triumph of a book. The ten
stories are all short but powerful, tracing the lives of women from
Okparanta's native Nigeria...Ultimately Okparanta's collection is
not so much a statement about Nigerian women as it is a depiction
of a few women who happen to be Nigerian going through universal
issues in their own, unique social contexts. It's a book about
Nigeria, about America, and about women everywhere told in short
sentences and simple, matter-of-fact language that manages to be
incredibly emotionally evocative nonetheless. Okparanta is a
certainly a voice to watch, and clearly deserves a place on any
bookshelf beside fellow Nigerian authors Achebe and Adichie."
--Bustle.com "The stories are quiet and understated and lucid and
gather up their power almost without the reader realizing it, then
they break your heart, just like that. Such subtle and open and
strong writing."
--The Millions "This promising young author delivers an affecting
collection, revolving around African women, at home and abroad,
contemplating religion and love."--Time Out New York
"Okparanta pays great attention to detail, making it easy to get
caught up in the problems of these women who must fend for
themselves. . . She writes with compassion and strength for these
nameless, faceless women who are unable to defend their own
actions."--Bust "Bittersweet. . .[Happiness, Like Water] is an
extremely promising debut: the handling of tone and perspective is
assured; the prose lucid and elegant throughout."--Financial Times
(UK) "The unsparing stories of Happiness, Like Water show Okparanta
to be a champion of young, frequently misunderstood female
protagonists whose voices are too often stifled."
--Daily Beast "Okparanta skillfully introduces readers to a new
world held back by old-world traditions"
--Publishers Weekly "Nigeria, the vibrancy of its heart, the soul
of its people, is captured in these stories."
--Kirkus "[Okparanta] confirms her place as a writer to watch with
the remarkable debut collection Hapiness, Like W --
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