Akachi Ezeigbo

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Akachi Ezeigbo, a multiple award-winning prolific writer and international scholar, has taught in three universities in Nigeria – University of Lagos; Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike (AE-FUNAI); and Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, in Ebonyi State – as well as in South Africa and the United Kingdom. She was a three-time Head of English Department at University of Lagos (Unilag), and received the Best Researcher Award in the Arts and the Humanities from Unilag in 2005. She has been awarded visiting Fellowships in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Germany and has given Keynote Lectures in universities in the USA. Apart from academic books and scholarly articles in local and international journals, she has published in all genres of literature: she is a poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer and children’s book author, writing under the pen name Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo. Among her over 50 books are: the trilogy, The Last of the strong Ones, House of Symbols and Children of the Eagle; Trafficked; Roses and Bullets; Fact and Fiction in the Literature of the Nigerian Civil War; Gender Issues in Nigeria; Snail-sense Feminism: Building on an Indigenous Model and Women and Leadership in Igboland: Omoku, Ime Chi and Omugwo Institutions. Ezeigbo was a joint winner of The Nigeria Prize for Literature (NPL) in 2007 with her children’s novel My Cousin Sammy. Other literary prizes she won include WORDOC Short Story Prize (1994), ANA/Spectrum Prize for Prose (2001), Zulu Sofola Prize (2001), NDDC/Flora Nwapa Prize (2003), ANA/Atiku Abubakar Children’s Literature Prize (2008), ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize (2009), African Literature Association (ALA) Best Short Story Award (2020) First Prize in the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace (IFLAC) Haiku Competition (2021) and the 2022 Fonlon-Nichols Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and Contributions to the Struggle for Human Rights and Freedom of Expression. She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL), the Literary Society of Nigeria (FLSN), English Scholars Association of Nigeria (FESAN) and Association of Nigerian Authors (FANA). Akachi Ezeigbo was the Vice President of PEN International, Nigeria Centre (2002-2011) and Vice President of Women Writers Association of Nigeria – WRITA (1995-1999). She served as a Director in the Board of Directors of University Press PLC, Ibadan (2013-2023), and was a former Member of the Governing Council of the National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Aba, 2018-2021. In February 2021, Ezeigbo was appointed a Member of the Board of Trustees of IRUKA: Centre for the Study of the Future of Igbo. She was the Chair of the Panel of Judges for The Nigeria Prize for Literature, in the Children Literature category (2011), and in March 2021 was appointed Chair of the Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature & The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited. Akachi Ezeigbo was elected a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) in 2024.   

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