37TH Annual International Convention – what you need to know about Professor Karen King-Aribisala (Keynote Speaker)

37^TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PROFESSOR KAREN KING-ARIBISALA (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)

Biography

Professor Karen King-Aribisala was educated in Guyana, Barbados, England, Nigeria, Wales and Italy. She is a professor of English in the Department of English, University of Lagos. She is a writer of fiction and has published several short stories and poems in journals such as Wasafiri, Presence Africaine, Moving Worlds and The Griot; her work has been anthologized.

She is the recipient of several local and international awards, grants fellowships and Artists Residencies, among them a James Mitchener Fellowship and Scholarship; British Council Awards; Ford Foundation Grant; Residencies at The MacDowell Colony, USA; The Camargo Foundation, France; The Djerassi Foundation, USA; Yaddo, USA; she represented Nigeria at ROMAPOESIA, in Italy as a poet; and in India at a Women’s Writing Seminar.

She is the author of novels, among them The Hangman’s Game and Kicking Tongues; short story collections: Our Wife and Other Stories; and poems. She is the winner of the  Commonwealth Prize for Literature: Best First Book (African Region 1990/91); winner of the Commonwealth Prize for Literature: Best Book(African Region 2008); long listed for the IMPAC Literary Dublin Prize and shortlisted for the Guyana Prize for Literature.

Academic Position & Duties

• Present1982

Professor of English

University of Lagos, English Department

• 20102005

Head of Department

University of Lagos, English Department

• 20042004

Chairman, International Conference

Literature & Journalism - Unilag

• 19861986

Head, Publications Committee

Unilag, Arts Faculty Conference

• 19861986

Public Relations Officer

University of Lagos, English Department

Education & Training

• Ph.D. 1978-1981

Ph.D. - African and West Indian Literature

University of Sussex, England

• M.A. 1977

M.A. (Honours)-English Literature

University of Leeds, England

• B.A. 1972-1976

Bachelor of Arts in English Literature

University of the West Indies, Barbados

Honours, Awards and Grants

• 2010

Outstanding Contribution Award-Garden Literary Festival PH, Nigeria

• 2010-2011

Judge for TV show “The Debaters”

• 2009

Commonwealth Foundation Award to attend P.E.N. conference and read from my works

• 2008

Winner of Commonwealth Prize, Best Book (Africa). The Hangman’s Game

• 2004

Research Grant from Ford Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria (London, UK)

• 2003

British Council – appointment to teach performance/ creative writing

• 1995

Elected Vice-president of Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies

• 1991

N.N.M.C. Award for Best First Book, Our Wife and other Stories Lagos, Nigeria

• 1991

Regional Prize (Africa) for Best First Book, Our Wife and other Stories in Commonwealth Literature Prize; Toronto, Canada

• 1972

Awarded ‘Best Actress’ prize at the Theatre Guild of Guyana