Booker Prize winner Ben Okri will attend the international literary meet to be organised in the city as part of the Viswa Malayalam Mahotsavam. The author will take part in a discussion with writers from Kerala at the Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium on October 31 at 10 am. The discussion, to be followed by an interaction with the audience, will be moderated by Chief Secretary K Jayakumar.
The news of the Nigerien author’s first-ever visit to the state was kept under warps as his visa was yet to be cleared. R Gopalakrishnan, secretary, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, however, clarified on Wednesday evening that Okri and his partner Rosemary Clunie’s visas have been cleared. “They will reach the city on October 30 and will be attending the literary meet and interaction the next day,” he said.
One among most articulate post-colonial and post-modern voices from Africa, Okri was awarded the prestigious literary prize for his novel ‘The Famished Road’ in 1991. His literary career had a dream debut with the successful first novel ‘Flowers and Shadows’, published when he was just 21. The author now lives in London.