37TH 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
