SLU Writers Series - Lesley Nneka Arimah

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Lesley Nneka Arimah is the author of the short story collection What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, which was lauded by NPR as “electrifying, [and] defiantly original.” Her short story, “Skinned,” published in Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 53, was awarded the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing.

Winner of the 2017 Kirkus Prize for Fiction and the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky was also a finalist for the Aspen Prize, and named one of the most anticipated books of 2017 by Time, Elle, the Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Millions, Nylon, and the Minneapolis StarTribune, her fiction collection was also selected by the National Book Foundation as a 2017 5 Under 35 honoree. Arimah has also won an O. Henry Prize and was the Africa Regional Winner for the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the 2016 Caine Prize for African Writing. Her work has received grants and awards from AWP, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and others. Her short stories have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including The New Yorker, which nominated her for a National Magazine Award, Harper’s Magazine, and Granta.

Arimah grew up in both the U.K. and Nigeria before moving to the U.S. in her early teens, where she spent a decade in Louisiana before relocating to Minnesota. She is currently at work on a novel.

Photo by Emily Baxter