Free Word Lecture

Multi award-winning Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri will deliver our inaugural Free Word Lecture, which will celebrate the political power of words to uphold free speech.

On the 30th anniversary of An African Elegy, his first book of poetry, Okri will talk about his latest collection, A Fire in My Head, and what has changed in the three decades in between.

Okri’s work speaks to many of the issues of our time, from the climate crisis and the colonial legacy in Africa to racism and the treatment of refugees. His new book brings together many of his most acclaimed and politically charged poems.

Join us to find out why poetry is so important in a world of crisis in this special event with one of the foremost writers of our time.

About the Poet

Ben Okri

Ben Okri has published many books including The Famished Road, which won the Booker Prize in 1991, The Age of Magic, Dangerous Love, In Arcadia, and Astonishing the Gods. He has published ten novels, three books of short stories, two collections of essays, and three volumes of poems, the latest being Wild.

Related Book

A Fire in my Head, Ben Okri

A Fire in My Head

Ben Okri

Shop on Waterstones