Off the Shelf: Waking the Warriors – Ben Okri in conversation with Tara Tobler

Ben Okri is an acclaimed novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet whose award winning writing  includes the Booker Prize for Fiction for The Famished Road. He will talk about his latest work, Waking the Warriors, a modern fable, born from the ancient legend of the sleeping warriors who wake when the kingdom is in mortal danger.

Brilliantly conjured by a virtuoso storyteller, the tale is set in a dystopic world of invading armies, terrified refugees and demotic tyrants. But where the greatest enemy is not the tyrant but the dark forces draining the people’s will to resist. 

‘Fiction’s master enchanter’ Marlon James 

‘Magic is essential, and Okri can spin it’ The Guardian

Sir Ben Okri was born in Minna, Nigeria. His childhood was divided between Nigeria, where he saw first-hand the consequences of war, and London. He has won many awards including the Booker Prize for Fiction, and is also an acclaimed essayist, playwright, and poet. In 2019 Astonishing the Gods was named as one of the BBC’s ‘100 Novels That Shaped Our World’. 

Tara Tobler is a writer, a critic and the senior fiction editor at award winning Sheffield publishers And Other Stories.

This event is part of Off the Shelf: Festival of Words from the University of Sheffield. The full festival programme is available here: https://offtheshelf.org.uk/events/ 

The event is organised by the Off the Shelf Festival. Views expressed at this event do not reflect those of Sheffield Museums.