Obinna Udenwe

Obinna Udenwe’s works address themes of power and manipulation, love, politics, mysticism and religion. He is the winner of the first edition of The Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature in 2021 for his second book, Colours of Hatred, which was also a finalist for the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature. His first book, Satans & Shaitans, set against the backdrop of Nigeria’s terrorism tension, won the ANA Prize for Prose Fiction in 2015. His short stories have won a Prairie Schooner—Glenna Luschei Prize of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2020 and The Short Story is Dead Prize in 2016. His collection of stories, Men Are Fools, was a finalist in the Prairie Schooner-Raz Shumaker Book Prize. It is now published in Nigeria as The Widow Who Died With Flowers in Her Mouth. His story, It Has to do with Emilia, was made into a film in 2022 by Bump Films, South Africa and produced by Bridget Pickering, co-producer of the film, Hotel Rwanda.

Obinna Udenwe’s fifth book is Years of Shame, a poignant tale of an Abakaliki man, who strives to escape both the brutal domineering influence of his revered Arochukwu boss and the debilitating powers of his community’s dreaded oath-of-loss-of-wealth-and-children which he’s taken to prove himself a man, the two working to destroy not just his life but those of his children and grandson. Years of Shame was published in 2025, with over a thousand copies sold on the launch day alone, its themes sparking off commentaries and debates. In 2020, 845 Press Canada published his chapbook, The Brief Story of the New Love Software. His Holy Sex series, now a novella available only as e-book on Amazon, remains the most widely read stories on Brittle Paper since 2014. His works have appeared in Gutter Magazine, Lolwe Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Munyori Literary Journal, Afreada, The Temz Review, KTravula, Yimu Central, The Kalahari Review, Expound Magazine, ANA Reviews, Ake Review, Tribe-write, Outside In Magazine, Brittle Paper, and The Shallow Tales Review etc. In 2015, Obinna partnered with Nora Vasconselos to produce twenty stories for the Crossover Mexico–Nigeria project which they both initiated. He founded and co-edited the Ebedi Review between 2014 – 2023 and co-edited the anthology Voices From My Clan with Mukoma wa Ngugi.