Irenosen Okojie

Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novel, Butterfly Fish, and short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. She won the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for her short story Grace Jones. Her journalism has been featured in The New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian and the Huffington Post. She was a Contributing Editor for And Other Stories. She co-presented the BBC’s Turn Up for The Books podcast alongside Bastille frontman Dan Smith and Simon Savidge. Her work has been optioned for the screen. She has also judged various literary prizes including being Chair of Judges for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the RSL Fellowship election panel. She was a judge for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Formerly the Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, she was named a visionary artist in Red Magazine’s The Next 25 visionaries to watch and awarded an MBE For Services to Literature in 2021. She is the director and founder of Black to the Future festival. Her latest novel Curandera is published by Dialogue Books.