Okwiri Oduor

Okwiri Oduor is a Kenyan fiction writer and freelance software developer. Her short story My Father’s Head won the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing.

Okwiri Oduor was born in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. She has been a fellow at MacDowell and Art Omi and a visiting writer at the Lannan Center.

In 2012, the Commonwealth Book Prize recognized and praised the exceptional quality of her novella The Dream Chasers. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New Inquiry, Kwani, and elsewhere.

Her debut novel Things They Lost (2022) is named a Most Anticipated Book by Vogue and Vulture.

Things They Lost explores the enchanting yet melancholic journey of Ayosa, a young girl yearning for her elusive mother, Nabumbo Promise. Set in a realm where the spirit world intersects with the human world, the story unfolds in Ayosa's grandmother's dilapidated house, where she finds companionship with ghosties. As Ayosa navigates through a world brimming with African magical realism, the novel delves into themes of loneliness, longing, and the complexities of love.

She also works as a web developer and UX designer.

"While writing scripts for television shows and radio essays, manuscripts for award-winning short stories, and my debut novel, I deeply understood how to craft unforgettable characters, settings, plots, and narratives. This creative design in fiction and non-fiction is something that I now bring to tech," Oduor says.

Okwiri Oduor currently lives in Germany.