Chris Abani on the Stories of Africa

Imprisoned three times by the Nigerian government, Chris Abani turned his experience into poems that Harold Pinter called "the most naked, harrowing experience of prison life and political torture imaginable"

Chris Abani's first novel, published when he was 16, was Masters of the Board, a political thriller about a foiled Nigerian coup.  The story was convincing enough that the Nigerian government threw him in jail for inciting a coincidentally timed real-life coup.  Imprisoned and tortured twice more, he channeled the experience into searing poetry

Abani's best-selling 2004 novel GraceLand is a searing and funny tale of a young Nigerian boy, an Elvis impersonator who moves through the wide, wild world of Lagos, slipping between pop and traditional cultures, art and crime.  It's a perennial book-club pick, a story that brings the postcolonial African experience to vivid life.

Now based in Los Angeles, Abani published The Virgin of Flames in 2007.  he is also a publisher, running poetry imprint Black Goat Press.