Tayari's Blog: Congratulations to Chris Abani

Posted by TayariJones on March 12, 2005 07:48 PM
Filed under Bookshelf

GraceLand, the gorgeous first novel by Chris Abani has won the 2005 PEN/Hemmingway Award.

Before GraceLand was published,I first met Chris Abani over the telephone. I was interviewing him for The Believer magazine. This was before Walter Mosely chose GraceLand for the Today show, before the novel was short listed for every important prize there is. And even then, I knew that good things were just ahead for Chris and his beautiful book.

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There are 2 comments on "Congratulations to Chris Abani". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.

Comment #1, by d. okoro

thanks for your kind words on behalf of chris abani. correction: graceland is not his first novel. look up masters of the board (1986).

regards,
d. okoro

April 6, 2005 08:03 PM

Comment #2, by Tayari

Hi, You're right GraceLand isn't Chris's first novel, but since it is the first he has written as an adult, I am considering it his debut. I interviewed Chris for THE BELIVER last year (April 04.) We talked about this at some length. If you get a chance, check out the interview in teh archives or wait to see it reprinted in the new Believer book!

April 10, 2005 06:23 PM

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