Author Talk: Tochukwu Okafor, September Writer in Residence
Join us for an in-person author talk featuring Tochukwu Okafor at the Pitkin County Library.
DOORS: open at 5:00 p.m.
SEATING: is general admission and available on a first come, first served basis.
Tochukwu Okafor is a Nigerian writer whose work has appeared in the 2019 Best Small Fictions, the 2018 Best of the Net, The Guardian, Harvard’s Transition Magazine, Columbia Journal and elsewhere. He is a 2022 Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts (MASS MoCA) Fellow andArtist-in-Residence, a 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, a 2021 GrubStreet Emerging Writer Fellow, a 2021 Jack Straw Writing Fellow, a 2021 Gish Jen Fiction Fellow, a 2021 Wellstone Center in the Redwoods (WCR) Writing Fellow, a 2021 Sundress Academy for the Arts Writer-in-Residence Fellow, a 2021 Bethany Arts Community Artist-in-Residence, a 2021 Frank Conley Memorial Scholar, a 2021 Albertina Tholakele Dube Scholar for Young Writers, a 2021 Longleaf Writers Conference BIPOC Scholar and an alumnus of the 2021 Tin House Workshop. He is also a 2018 Rhodes Scholar finalist, a 2018 Kathy Fish Fellow and winner of the 2017 Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction. He has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He is an MFA Fiction candidate at Emerson College, holds a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and has received scholarships and fellowship grants from the Under the Volcano Writers’ Workshop, Worcester Arts Council, Kundiman, Kenyon Review Writers’Workshop, Etisalat (now 9mobile), the MTN Foundation, the Boston Writers of Color Group and Exxon Mobil. He lives in Worcester, MA and is at work on a novel and a story collection. He is on Twitter @toch_okafor and Instagram @tochukwu_okafor.
Plans for residency:
Tochukwu will be working on his debut novel. Set in Nigeria and the US, his novel investigates the coming-of-age of a young boy. His novel seeks to examine themes across Igbo mysticism, mythology, sexuality, masculinity, religion, and mental health.
In addition to our partners at the
Catto Shaw Foundation,
thank you to the following sponsors:
