2014 New York Public Library Young Lions Award Finalist
2014 Rolex Mentors and Protégés Arts Initiative Finalist in Literature
2014 Lambda Awards General Lesbian Fiction Finalist
2013 Society of Midland Authors Award Finalist
2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, Long-listed
2013 Caine Prize in African Writing Finalist
Editors' Choice, New York Times Book Review
The Guardian's Best African Fiction of 2013
2012 United States Artists Fellowship Nominated Author
"Full of movement...These tales will break your heart open. Okparanta guides you through her stories with lovely, surreal, haunting clarity."
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New York Daily News "Okparanta is an unpretentious writer, but her ambition comes through in the lives she renders–young Nigerian women divided between home and a new world."
–Vogue.com
"The stories in Okparanta's first collection are quiet, often unnervingly so, in the manner of a stifled shriek...One character notes the silences that fall between her and her mother, 'as if we no longer valued spoken words, as if spoken words were gaudy finishes on a delicate piece of art, unnecessary distractions from the masterpiece, whose substance was more meaningfully experienced if left unornamented.' If this is Okparanta's goal - the distillation of experience into something crystalline, stark but lustrous - she is well on her way there."
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New York Times Book Review
"Chinelo Okparanta was chosen as one of Granta's six new voices for 2012, and it's easy to see why. Her short story collection,
Happiness, Like Water (Mariner), is a triumph of a book. The ten stories are all short but powerful, tracing the lives of women from Okparanta's native Nigeria...Ultimately Okparanta's collection is not so much a statement about Nigerian women as it is a depiction of a few women who happen to be Nigerian going through universal issues in their own, unique social contexts. It's a book about Nigeria, about America, and about women everywhere told in short sentences and simple, matter-of-fact language that manages to be incredibly emotionally evocative nonetheless. Okparanta is a certainly a voice to watch, and clearly deserves a place on any bookshelf beside fellow Nigerian authors Achebe and Adichie."
–Bustle.com "The stories are quiet and understated and lucid and gather up their power almost without the reader realizing it, then they break your heart, just like that. Such subtle and open and strong writing."
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The Millions "This promising young author delivers an affecting collection, revolving around African women, at home and abroad, contemplating religion and love."–
Time Out New York
"Okparanta pays great attention to detail, making it easy to get caught up in the problems of these women who must fend for themselves. . . She writes with compassion and strength for these nameless, faceless women who are unable to defend their own actions."–
Bust "Bittersweet. . .[
Happiness, Like Water] is an extremely promising debut: the handling of tone and perspective is assured; the prose lucid and elegant throughout."–
Financial Times (UK)
"The unsparing stories of
Happiness, Like Water show Okparanta to be a champion of young, frequently misunderstood female protagonists whose voices are too often stifled."
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Daily Beast "Okparanta skillfully introduces readers to a new world held back by old-world traditions"
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Publishers Weekly "Nigeria, the vibrancy of its heart, the soul of its people, is captured in these stories."
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Kirkus "[Okparanta] confirms her place as a writer to watch with the remarkable debut collection
Hapiness, Like W –
