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Last night, at the 26th Annual LAMBDA Literary Awards which celebrates “excellence in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender literature”, Nigeria’s Chinelo Okparanta won the Lesbian Fiction Award for her debut novel, Under the Udala Trees.
Chinelo Okparanta accepts the award for lesbian fiction for her book Under the Udala Trees #lammys
The debut novel, set during and after the Biafran war, is a compelling story of love during the time of war. Okparanta successfully captured the struggle to stay in love and also the dangers of being found in a same sex relationship especially in a country that frowns at it.
The book, which continues to receive rave reviews all around the world, was birthed at a time when Nigeria criminalised same sex relationships.
Under the Udala Trees is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the United States.