Ben Okri

Knighted in the King's Birthday Honours, Sir Ben Okri is one of Britain's most significant writers. Influenced by his experiences of both his adopted home and his native Nigeria, his novels span contrasting cultures and traditions. Awarded the Booker Prize in 1991 for The Famished Road, Okri has gone on to establish himself as an author of international repute. Here he discusses his childhood, the Nigerian civil war, a period of homelessness in England, his journey into writing, his knighthood, his championship of the environment and his horror at the climate crisis, his passions outside work, and the changing face of the UK. His latest book, Tiger Work, mixes fiction, essay and poetry in its appeal for change in the face of global warming.

When poet Ben Okri was just seven years old, he and his family moved back to Nigeria on the eve of civil war. Ever since, he has been fascinated by what he calls “cusp moments,” the periods just before catastrophe strikes. His new novel, "The Last Gift of the Master Artists," takes place in an African society just before the Atlantic slave trade. In the book, he sets out to examine the spirit of a culture on the eve of its destruction. In today’s episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor in chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Okri to discuss how writing can help us face what we refuse to see, how Buddhist teachings have influenced his work, and why he believes that art is most powerful when it brings us to a point of crisis.

Ilyas and Shy, saddened by the passing of Ben Okri, explore whether or not they actively eschew understanding aspects of their lives in order to maintain their sanity. Whilst trying to define the word eschewing, the conversation inevitably forks down the divergent paths of Natural Selection, Wisdom, Love and Mental Health. **It has since been made clear to us by Ben Okri himself, that he is much very much alive and well**

Simon Oldfield is joined by Booker-prize winning author Ben Okri and artist Jessy Jetpacks to discuss A Short Affair, Pin Drop's first anthology of original short fiction for the Monocle 24 weekly podcast, hosted by Robert Bound.

Booker Prize winning author Ben Okri speaking with special guests about the power of poetry and protest.Today protest and poetry have never been so urgent and so relevant. As Ben Okri says in "Rise Like Lions: poetry for the many", in a time when you no longer know if people are telling you the truth, it is then that poetry can awaken as a new force in the world. Poetry can rouse and stir us, make us think anew and question the powers that be. In a time where opinions are shouted, the music of the poems, and the richness of our guests' voices were clarion calls to action.Featuring poet Ben Okri, human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy QC, journalist and feminist Laurie Penny, photojournalist Giles Duley Photographer, actor David Calder and the artist Zoe Bedeaux. Together they discuss the impact of poetry on their work and read from 'Rise Like Lions' including the words of Bob Dylan, Langston Hughes, W B Yeats, Bob Marley, Ernest Hemingway, Maya Angelou, Pablo Naruda, Adrienne Rich, Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht.Recorded in London in July 2018.5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each.Learn more about 5x15 events: http://5x15stories.comTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/5x15storiesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/5x15storiesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/5x15stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The RA and Pin Drop welcomed Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri for an evening of short fiction and storytelling, inspired by the exhibition ‘Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse’. Ben Okri has published eight novels, including The Famished Road and Starbook, as well as collections of poetry, short stories and essays. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been awarded an OBE as well as numerous international prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa, the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction and the Chianti Rufino-Antico Fattore.

Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri on the relevance of his talk at the Gibraltar Literary Festival. Considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions, Ben likens literature to ‘the magic thread’ in the mysterious labyrinth of life. For Ben, Gibraltar was the most appropriate location to speak of the conjunction of Africa and Europe.

The 34th Book Slam podcast is a bumper edition, with Man Booker Prize-winner Ben Okri discussing ' A Time For New Dreams ', Simon Armitage picking up hitchers, and Philip Wells catching alight. There's also our old friend Joe Dunthorne reading from ' Submarine ', music from Tanya Auclair and debut novelist Nikesh Shukla discussing ' Coconut Unlimited ' and facing up to the robo-charm of Angebot. Patrick is lugubrious, Elliott reaches for the dictionary.