Onyeka Nwelue is an Academic Visitor at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford.
His UK debut, The Strangers of Braamfontein, published by Abibiman Publishing UK, won ANA Prize for Fiction in 2021 and Best Indie Novel Winner- The Crime Fiction Lover Awards in 2021.
He is the Dean of the School of Cinematographic Studies at Université Queensland in Haiti.
He has written 21 books – including novels, plays, poetry collections, a narrative in verse, works of non-fiction, a children’s book, and anthologies of essays. He has produced and directed feature films comprising 3 documentaries – one about his aunt, Flora Nwapa, first woman to be published under Heinemann African Writers Series, a 30-minute documentary on James Currey and a biopic about the late Ikemba of Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwue’s the founder of the Oxford-based James Currey Society, which administers the James Currey Fellowship incooperation with the Africentre.
He is the founder and director of the annual James Currey Prize for African Literature and James Currey Literary Festival – taking place at the Weston Library, University of Oxford.
A filmmaker, publisher and talk show host, he is a member of The Oxford Union Society, a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford.
His non-fiction book, Hip-Hop is Only for Children, won the Creative Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2015 Nigerian Writers’ Awards.
His second novel, The Beginning of Everything Colourful, was shortlisted for the ANA Prose Fiction Prize in 2018, and his collection of poetry, The Lagos Cuban Jazz Club, was shortlisted for ANA Poetry Prize in the same year.
He studied Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and Directing at Prague Film School in Czech Republic.
He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, by Universite Queensland in Haiti. He received a grant from Institute for Research in Women, Children and Culture (IRAWCC) in 2009 and a Princ Claus Ticket Grant in 2013.
He studied Ancient Masterpieces of World Literature at Harvard University and Business of Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
He was an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies, Ohio University.
He is, currently, a visiting assistant professor and Visiting Fellow of African Literature and studies in the English Language Department of the Faculty of Humanities, Manipur University in Imphal, India.
He splits his time between Oxford and Johannesburg.
Publications:
1. The Abyssinian Boy
Publisher: Dada Books (2009); Abibiman Publishing (2022)
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9789780882174
2. Wole Soyinka: Encounters with the Grey Maverick
Publisher: Abibiman Publishing UK (2021)
Genre: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781998995813
3. The Beginning of Everything Colourful
Publisher: Paressia Publishers (2017)
Genre: Fiction
ISBN : 9781546467335
4. There Are No White People
Publisher: Abibiman Publishing (2022)
Genre: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781739693404
5. An Angel on the Piano
Publisher: Griots Lounge Publishing (2020)
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9789785756753
6. Island of Happiness
Publisher: Blues & Hills (2018)
Genre: Fiction- Novella
ISBN: 9781983955433
7. The Real Owners of Britain
Publisher: Abibiman Publishing (2022)
Genre: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781739774776
8. The Lagos Cuban Jazz Club
Publisher: Blues & Hills (2017)
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781548402006
9. The Spice Bazaar
Publisher: Blues & Hills (2018)
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9781983929090
10. Lemon Grass
Publisher: Abibiman Publishing (2022)
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781998995899
11. Hip-Hop Is Only for Children
Publisher: Blues & Hills (2015)
Genre: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781541332942
12. Outside Weston Library
Publisher: Abibiman Publishing (2022)
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781739693428
13. The Strangers of Braamfontein
Publisher: Abibiman Publishing (2021)
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781998995806
14. The Last Trains out of Ukraine
Publisher: Fabula Plays (Abibiman Publishing) (2022)
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781998995868
15. Burnt
Publisher: Hattus Books
Genre: Poetry
16. Evening Coffee with Arundhati Roy
Publisher: Bridge Books
Genre: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780733426094
17. A Country of Extraordinary Ghosts
Publisher: Origami (2018)
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781725659278
18. 84 Delicious Bottles of Red Wine for Wole Soyinka
Publisher: Abibiman Publishing
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781724334626
19. Quemado
Publisher: Editions Peru Spanish
Genre: Poetry
20. Dogs of the West
Publisher: Abibiman Publishing
Genre: Non-Fiction
21. Saving Mungo Park
Publisher: Hattus Books (2021)
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9789785627947
