Education
She holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an MA from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. She also holds a PhD from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, having completed a thesis entitled "In the shadow of Ala. Igbo women writing as an act of righting" in 2004 .
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Biography
Chika Unigwe is the author of fiction, poetry, articles and educational material. She won the 2003 BBC Short Story Competition for her story "Borrowed Smile", a Commonwealth Short Story Award for "Weathered Smiles" and a Flemish literary prize for "De Smaak van Sneeuw", her first short story written in Dutch. "The Secret", another of her short pieces, was nominated for the 2004 Caine Prize. Moreover, her short story "Dreams" was shortlisted for the Million Writers Best Online Fiction in 2005, and "Thinking of Angel" was longlisted for the same award. Her story "Confetti, Glitter and Ash" recently finished third in the 2005 Equiano Prize for Fiction.
Unigwe's stories have been broadcast on BBC World Service, Radio Nigeria, and other Commonwealth radio stations. She comments: “I have written for as long as I can remember. I write to explain the world to myself, to answer questions I do not get ready answers to, to tell stories that demand to be told. I write because I must.” Unigwe lives in Turnhout, Belgium with her husband, and her four young sons. She is currently working on a new novel.
Her first novel, De Feniks, was published in Dutch by Meulenhoff / Manteau in September 2005; it is the first book of fiction written by a Flemish author of African origin. The story, set in Turnhout, explores themes such as grief, illness and loneliness, subjects already touched upon in Unigwe’s earlier work. By featuring a central character who shares the novelist’s Afro-European background, the narrative also exposes some shortcomings of Belgian society, like its pervasive unwelcoming atmosphere and the superficiality of many of its inhabitants.
Chika Unigwe wrote her second novel "Fata Morgana" in 2007, a tale of choices and displacement, set against the backdrop of the Antwerp prostitution scene. This novel has also been translated in English under the title "On Black Sisters′ Street" (the English version is somewhat different than the Dutch version) and in Italian under the title "Le nigeriane".
Her latest novel Night Dancer is set in Nigeria, a fascinating country and one of the most rapidly growing economies in the world. Tradition and progress stand face to face. All those contradictions meet in the big city of Enugu. The young girl, Mma, an orphan, is trying to make her way through life, which has not been merciful with her.
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