Quick Facts
Biography
Okwiri Oduor (born 1988/1989) is a Kenyan writer, who won the 2014 Caine Prize. In April 2014 she was named on the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define trends in African literature, with her story "Rag Doll" being included in the subsequent anthology edited by Ellah Allfrey, Africa39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara.
Life
She was born in Nairobi, Kenya. Her novella The Dream Chasers was highly commended in the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize. Her short story "My Father's Head" won her the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing, making her the third Kenyan winner of the prize after Binyavanga Wainaina in 2002 and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor in 2003. Oduor is a 2014 MacDowell Colony fellow.
She is writing a novel.