Inside Track....Uwem Akpan reads in Abuja

STANDING ROOM ONLY for Catholic priest, Father Uwen Akpan,
who writes fiction.
Click on image to enlarge. Photo by Araceli Aipoh

Father Uwem Akpan, author of the short story collection,
Say You're One of Them, reads at the Hilton,
Photo by Araceli Aipoh

The Niger Room of the Hilton Hotel was filled to capacity on Friday night, June 2010, when Uwem Akpan, a Catholic priest who writes fiction, read from his book Say You're One of Them. Organized by the Abuja Literay Society and moderated by Eugenia Abu, the reading is one of the most well-attended literay arts event in Abuja to date.  Father Akpan's book was selected for recommended reading by Oprah Winfrey in 2009. His works have also appeared in The New Yorker. (Scroll down for more photos...)

ABOUT UWEM AKPAN
(Source: Wikipedia)

Uwem Akpan, born May 19, 1971, is a Nigerian Jesuit priest and writer. He is the author of Say You’re One of Them (2008), a collection of five stories (each set in a different African country) published by Little, Brown & Company. It was picked by the Oprah Winfrey Book Club on September 17, 2009.

He was born in the southern Nigerian village of Ikot Akpan Eda; his parents were teachers. He and his three brothers grew up speaking both English and Annang. He joined the Jesuit order at the age of 19, in 1990 and became a priest on July 19, 2003; he later earned an M.F.A. degree in creative writing at the University of Michigan. He has also studied theology at Creighton University.

Entertainment Weekly put the book on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Against all odds, the Nigerian priest's searing African stories from 2008 imparted both joy and hope."

In 2009 Oprah Winfrey recommended a short story collection of U.S.-educated Nigerian Jesuit Fr. Uwem Akpan as her 63rd influential book club selection. Akpan said he was humbled to learn his debut collection of short stories had caught Winfrey's eye. Winfrey said that Akpan's 2008 collection, Say You're One of Them (published by Little, Brown, 2008), "left [her] stunned and profoundly moved." The five short stories give voice to an African child growing up in the face of incredible adversity. Asked if there was a conflict between being a priest and being a writer, he said he liked being both: "Both give me energy. Gaudium et Spes, a key Vatican II document, makes it very clear that the joys and anguish of the world are the joys and anguish of the Church. The Jesuits have a rich tradition of writing and involvement in social issues.

EXCERPT from a short story by Uwem Akpan
(Source: http://www.newyorker.com/)

I'm nine years and seven months old. I’m at home playing peekaboo in my room with my little brother, Jean. It’s Saturday evening and the sun has fallen behind the hills. There’s silence outside our bungalow, but from time to time the evening wind carries a shout to us. Our parents have kept us indoors since yesterday.

Maman comes into the room and turns off the light before we see her. Jean cries in the darkness, but once she starts kissing him he begins to giggle. He reaches up to be held, but she’s in a hurry.

“Don’t turn on any lights tonight,” she whispers to me.

I nod. “Yego, Maman.”

“Come with your brother.” I carry Jean and follow her. “And don’t open the door for anybody. Your papa is not home, I’m not home, nobody is home. Do you hear me, Monique, huh?”

“Yego, Maman.”

(Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/06/12/060612fi_fiction#ixzz0qaDQc2WP

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