Chinelo Okparanta

Chinelo Okparanta is the author of Happiness, Like Water (2013) and Under the Udala Trees (2015), each a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Her honors include an O. Henry Prize, two Lambda Awards in Fiction, and finalist selections for the Etisalat Prize, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, the Caine Prize, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

She has held fellowships and faculty appointments at Columbia University, City College of New York, Purdue University, Colgate University (Olive B. O'Connor Fellow in Fiction), University of Iowa (Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writer), Middlebury College (Bread Loaf's John Gardner Fellow in Fiction), and Howard University (Hurston/Wright Foundation Summer Writing Workshop Fiction Faculty), among others. She has been awarded residencies by the Jentel Foundation, the Hermitage Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and Hedgebrook.

Her stories have appeared in magazines including Granta, The New Yorker, and Tin House. She is currently Professor of English and Creative Writing at Bucknell University, where she is also Grange and Rogers Faculty Research Fellow.