Career timelines
Ben Okri: books, theatre and the Booker Prize
A chronology of selected writing, performances and honours, with edition dates kept explicit.
What this record covers
Selected books, film and theatre work, public events and honours from 1991 to June 2023. Early publications, later books and exact institutional appointment dates require further research.
Position at the coverage date
Nigerian-born writer with documented literary and cross-media work; historical biographies do not establish every current appointment. [s1] [s2] [s3] [s4] [s5] [s6]
Record details
- Booker recognition
- Booker records The Famished Road as the winning novel in 1991 and describes Okri as the then youngest winner. [s6]
- Writing across forms
- The Poetry Foundation documents poetry, fiction, essays, film scripts and plays in his career. [s3]
- Performance work
- Booker records his script for N: The Madness of Reason and his adaptation of Camus’s The Outsider. [s1]
- Edition distinctions
- CCCB lists Spanish translations and later English editions; their dates are not treated as original publication dates. [s2]
- Public conversations
- CCCB’s archive documents appearances by Okri discussing literature and the wider world. [s2]
The sequence
12 documented milestones. Highlighted entries mark turning points. Dates retain the precision of the source.
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Won the Booker Prize
The Booker archive records The Famished Road as its 1991 winner.
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An African Elegy appeared
The Poetry Foundation lists the Jonathan Cape poetry collection in 1992.
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A Way of Being Free appeared
The Poetry Foundation lists the Orion essay collection in 1997.
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Mental Fight appeared
The Poetry Foundation dates the Weidenfeld and Nicolson edition of the long poem to 1999.
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Spoke at CCCB
The CCCB archive dates his Readings and Reflections lecture to 20 October 2010.
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A Time for New Dreams appeared
The Poetry Foundation lists the Rider edition in 2011.
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A film he scripted won an Ensor award
Booker records N: The Madness of Reason winning Best Film at the Ensor Awards in 2015; the award was for the film.
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Adapted The Outsider for theatre
Booker dates the Coronet Theatre adaptation of Camus’s work to 2018.
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Gave another CCCB lecture
The CCCB archive dates To Imagine the World to 20 May 2019.
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Published A Fire in My Head
Booker dates the poetry collection to January 2021.
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The Last Gift of the Master Artists appeared
The Poetry Foundation lists the Other Press edition in 2022.
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Received a knighthood
Booker records the honour in the King’s birthday honours in June 2023.
Sources & evidence
- [s1] thebookerprizes.com
- [s2] www.cccb.org
- [s3] www.poetryfoundation.org
- [s4] thebookerprizes.com
- [s5] www.bbc.co.uk
- [s6] thebookerprizes.com
Public update history
— Researched against the cited evidence and independently checked before publication. Coverage limits apply.
— Titles and explanatory text passed the copywriting and source-consistency checks. Sources and data are unchanged.