Habila won the Music Society of Nigeria (MUSON) national poetry award for his poem "Another Age" in 2000,[9] the same year his short story collection Prison Stories was published.[8] He won the 2001 Caine Prize for a story from that collection, "Love Poems".[10] His first novel, Waiting for an Angel, was published in 2002, and the following year won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa Region, Best First Book).[11]
In 2006 he co-edited the British Council anthology New Writing 14.[15] His second novel, Measuring Time, published in 2007,[16] was nominated for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award,[17] the IMPAC Prize,[18] and in 2008 won the Virginia Library Foundation Prize for fiction.[19] His third novel, Oil on Water (2010), which deals with environmental pollution in the oil-rich Nigerian Delta, received generally positive review coverage. Bernardine Evaristo in The Guardian wrote:[20][21] "Habila's prose perfectly evokes the devastation of the oil-polluted wetlands"; Margaret Busby's review in The Independent said that[22] "Habila has a filmic ability to etch scenes on the imagination", and Aminatta Forna in The Daily Telegraph concluded:[23] "Habila is a skilful narrator and a master of structure."[24]Oil on Water was shortlisted for prizes including the Pen/Open Book Award,[25] Commonwealth Best Book, Africa Region,[26] and the Orion Book Award.[8] Habila's anthology The Granta Book of the African Short Story came out in September 2011.[27]
Habila is a founding member and currently serves on the advisory board of African Writers Trust,[28] "a non-profit entity which seeks to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote sharing of skills and other resources, and to foster knowledge and learning between the two groups."[29][30]
Growing up in a period of political dysfunction and military dictatorships, Helon Habila as a teenager in the 1980s was motivated to rebel and fight against this notion. Writing became his voice and a means of protest. It provided an avenue to express himself and his beliefs. Many times, he has tried to step away from his usual fight against injustice and write about different unrelated topics. Nevertheless, he has been unable to and stick to writing to reject injustice, oppression, and exploitation.[33]
Cordite publishing companyedit
Cordite Books is a new publishing company jointly owned by Habila and Parrésia Publishers.[34] Their first project was to make a call for submissions in 2013 for quality crime fiction manuscripts, the best to receive US$1,000 and a publishing deal with distribution across the continent.[35][36]
In his early days, Habila grew up reading Nigerian books in Hausa and then Macmillan's Pacesetters series, which was popular pan-African fiction mostly about crime in urban areas. This resonated with the actual happenings in cities where there is always a fight for power, a struggle to be important and issues of class. This setting has been a recurring scene in his life.[37]
With this interest in crime fiction, Helon noticed a gap in the market as a lot of books in Nigeria were by serious literary writers such as Chinua Achebe. After that you would only find non-fiction, religious or motivational books. There was hardly any middle ground for entertainment books and that is where Cordite Books fills the gap for crime fiction.[37]
Awards and honorsedit
2000 Music Society of Nigeria (MUSON) national poetry award[38]
"The Making of Habila's 'Waiting For An Angel' — A Review" by Isaac Attah Ogezi (African Writer, 9 September 2009), mentions how his love of literature endeared him to undergraduate lecturers such as Obiwu, who in his poetry collection Rituals of the Sun referred to Habila and Toni Kan as his "literary soul-mates".
^"BOOKS: 'Travelers' tells migrants' stories". The East African. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
^"CANCELLED - Betty Jean Craige Lecture in Comparative Literature: Helon Habila | Franklin College of Arts and Sciences". www.franklin.uga.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
^Habila, Helon. "Stories by helon-habila on Guernica". Guernica. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
^Evaristo, Bernardine (2011-11-10). "The Granta Book of the African Short Story edited by Helon Habila". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
^Evaristo, Bernardine (2010-09-24). "Oil on Water by Helon Habila | Book review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
^"Oil On Water, By Helon Habila". The Independent. 2010-08-13. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
^Forna, Aminatta (2010-10-31). "Oil on Water by Helon Habila: review". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
^"Advisory Board". African Writers Trust. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
^"What is African Writers Trust?" African Writers Trust. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
^Lamwaka, Beatrice, "Goretti Kyomuhendo of African Writers Trust" Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Afrolit, 22 May 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
^2016 Call for entires, Etisalat Prize for Literature.
^Lou, Jo (2019-11-07). "Writing Is Always a Political Act". Electric Literature. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
^"Helon Habila to Edit Cordite Books", Parrésia, 7 August 2013.
^"Cordite Books: Call for Submissions", Parrésia, 10 August 2013.
^"Zimbabwe's Blessing Musariri wins Crime Fiction Contest - James Murua's Literature Blog". James Murua's Literature Blog. 8 September 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
^ ab"Nigerian Author Helon Habila". Ayiba Magazine. 2 September 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
^Omoniyi, Tosin (2017-11-11). "Helon Habila, Maaza Mengiste named The New American Voices award judges - Premium Times Nigeria". Retrieved 2020-05-28.
^"Helon Habila". Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
^"Prize Citation for Helon Habila". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. 24 February 2015. Archived from the original on 26 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
^Online, Bamenda (May 8, 2020). "GPLA 2019: Seven Nominees for the Seventh Edition". Bamenda Online.
^Ibeh, Chukwuebuka (June 25, 2020). "Helon Habila's Travelers Shortlisted for the 2020 James Tait Black Memorial Prize". Brittle Paper. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
^James Murua (June 28, 2020). "HELON HABILA, SAIDIYA HARTMAN ON JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE 2020 SHORTLISTS". Retrieved October 20, 2021.
External linksedit
Helon Habila's website
Frank Bures, "Everything Follows: An Interview With Helon Habila", Poets & Writers, January/February 2003
"Helon Habila" Webcast at the Library of Congress, 1 May 2012.