Segun AFOLABI ... A Life Elsewhere (2006) & Goodbye Lucille (2007)

SEGUN AFOLABI was born in Kaduna, Nigeria, in 1966, and grew up in several countries, including the Congo, Indonesia, Canada, East Germany and Japan, and now settled in London. His début collection of stories, A Life Elsewhere (2006), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa region) and longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. His début novel, Goodbye Lucille, was published in 2007. His short story, “Monday Morning,” was awarded the 2005 Caine Prize for African Writing—a prestigious major award in African creative writing, and is included in A Life Elsewhere. Like the work of Derek Walcott and Caryl Phillips, exile and rootlessness are fundamental threads in his stories, which tell of displacement, dispossession and loneliness.

Meet Segun Afolabi at the 2008 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival on October 14-19, 2008. More details at www.ubudwritersfestival.com