Chinelo Okparanta is the author of Under the Udala Trees, an NAACP Award-nominated novel, and Happiness, Like Water, a collection of short stories selected as one of The Guardian’s Best African Fiction of 2013.  Okparanta received her BS from The Pennsylvania State University, her MA from Rutgers University, and her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.  She was one of Granta's six New Voices for 2012.  A 2014 Rolex Mentors and Protégés Finalist in Literature, and a 2014 New York Public Library Young Lions Award Finalist, Okparanta has also been named winner of the 2014 Lamnbda Awards in Lesbian Fiction, long-listed for the 2015 Center for Fiction Prize and the 2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and short-listed for the Caine Prize for African Writing. 

Website: www.chinelookparanta.com

Degrees

• Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Iowa Writers' Workshop (January 2012)
• Master of Arts in English Language and Literature from Rutgers University (January 2012)
• Bachelor of Science in Education from Penn State University (January 2012)

Genres of Interest

Fiction