T. Obinkaram Echewa

Born in Nigeria, T. Obinkaram Echewa published his first novel, The Land’s Lord, to acclaim in 1976. Echewa, who studied at the University of Notre Dame, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Syracuse University, later said that his “identity as an Igbo, Nigerian, and African became crystallized when [he] crossed the border into another country and hemisphere.” In high school, he devoured essays by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writers: “I was intrigued by the ability of these writers to write about topics like sleep, convalescence, taking a walk on a country road, or visiting a graveyard. They could write beautifully about anything!”