UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Nigerian-born writer Chika Unigwe will offer a reading as part of the 2023-24 Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. The reading, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2, in Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium on the University Park campus.
Unigwe has published four novels, including “On Black Sisters’ Street” (2011), which won the NLNG Prize for Literature; “De Zwarte Messias” (2014), a fictional rendition of the Nigerian memoirist Olaudah Equiano’s life; and a short story collection, “Better Never than Late” (2019).
Her latest novel, “The Middle Daughter,” was published by Dzanc Books in April 2023. Nigerian novelist Helon Habila made this observation about Unigwe’s latest novel: “Chika Unigwe’s modern retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone is pitch perfect — it is a meditation on the need we all share for belonging, and family, and love; a commentary on the journey we must all take in search of freedom.”
Unigwe is currently a professor at Georgia College, where she teaches in its Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. She has also served as creative director of the Awele Creative Trust, a judge for the Man Booker International Prize (2016), and Bonderman Professor of Creative Writing at Brown University (2016-17).
Unigwe’s work has been widely translated, and she has received many fellowships and awards for her writing. Most notably, she won the 2003 BBC Short Story Competition for her short story “Borrowed Smile,” and was nominated for the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story “The Secret.” She writes a weekly column for the Nigerian Daily Trust.
The Mary E. Rolling Reading Series is a program offered by Penn State’s Creative Writing Program in English. The series receives support from the College of the Liberal Arts; the Department of English; the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment; the Mary E. Rolling Lectureship in Creative Writing; and University Libraries. A full list of readings in the 2023-24 series can be found at creativewriting.psu.edu.