Best-selling novelist Wiley Cash is UNC Asheville’s 2016-17 writer-in-residence, and one of his duties in that role is to curate the Visiting Writers Series. His latest invitee, Chinelo Okparanta, is from Nigeria but is already deeply rooted in the American literary scene with an O. Henry Prize, a Lambda Literary Award and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. “Chinelo Okparanta is one of the most insightful authors writing during a time when cultural and political conversations matter more than ever,” says Cash. “As a woman, a writer of color, an author of lesbian fiction, and a woman whose family suffered the horrors of civil war, we would do well to listen to what she has to tell us.” Okparanta will read and discuss her writings with Cash on Tuesday, April 4, at 7 p.m. in UNCA’s Laurel Forum. Free. cesap.unca.edu. Photo by Kelechi Okere
Smart bets: Chinelo Okparanta
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