Arts
Chris Albani, a Nigerian novelist and poet living in political exile here in the US, is the author of the novels Master of the Board, The Virgin of Flames, and Gracelend, which won the 2005 PEN Hemingway Prize. He has also written several poetry collections and the novellas Song for Night and Becoming Abigail, a poets novella in its dream-like juxtapositions and stepladder flow. His other prizes include a PEN Freedom-to-Write Award, a Prince Claus Award, a Hurston/Wright Literary Fellowship and a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship. He Lives and teaches in California. Colm Tóibìn is an Irish novelist, journalist and playwright. His novels include The South, The Heather Blazing, The Story of the Night, and The Blackwater Lightship, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. His latest novel, The Master, aptly titled in reference to its protagonist, Henry James, and for the masterful writing deployed in conjuring him, was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize and named the Los Angles Times Novel of the Year. It won France's Prize of Best Foreign Novel in 2005.