Leeds Metropolitan University has joined forces with the Ilkley Literature Festival this year to present an evening with award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
The event, on Friday, May 30, at 7.30pm in Kings Hall, Ilkley, will be chaired by Dr Emily Marshall, lecturer in postcolonial literature at Leeds Met, and will see Chimamanda talk about her work and what inspires her.
Chimamanda will then offer a short reading and answer questions from the audience.
Chimamanda’s first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was published in 2003 and was long-listed for the Booker Prize. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and was released as a film in April this year, starring Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Her work has been selected by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and the BBC Short Story Awards and, in 2009, she won a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant. Her latest work, Americanah, was published in April 2013.
Dr Susan Watkins, Director of the Centre for Culture and the Arts at Leeds Met, said: “The Centre for Culture and the Arts is delighted to be sponsoring the Ilkley Literature Festival launch event with award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
“Adichie is one of the most exciting contemporary novelists and the film of her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun is now on release. Researchers in the centre have an established interest in contemporary women’s writing and postcolonial cultures, and we feel we can build on this work in our partnership with Ilkley.”
Dr Emily Marshall added: “I am delighted to be chairing an event with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; she is a hugely accomplished contemporary novelist and one of my favourite authors. I will be asking her about Half of a Yellow Sun, a story about the Nigerian Civil War, and her latest novel, Americanah. I hope to discuss her sources of inspiration, her unique narrative style, her exploration of the postcolonial relationship between Africa and the West and her views on feminism and identity. This will undoubtedly be an extremely thought-provoking and engaging event.”
Tickets for Chimamanda’s talk are £8 or £6 for concessions and are available from ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk.
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