Adichie Wins a MacArthur “Genius” Grant
By VQR Admin
September 23rd, 2008
VQR contributor Chimamanda Adichie been named a MacArthur Fellow. Richard Leiby writes in the Washington Post:
Nigerian-born novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — whose most recent book is “Half of a Yellow Sun” — took the call in Lagos last Monday. It was her 31st birthday. “It’s very exciting,” she said, still chortling at week’s end. “I really appreciate the recognition. “
And the $500,000?
“I don’t have to think about taking a teaching job for the next five years,” said Adichie, who recently moved to Columbia to be with her fiance, Ivara Esege, a physician at the University of Maryland. “I can write and get well paid for it for the next five years, which is the best possible position for a writer to be in.”
We published her short story, “A Private Experience,” in our Summer 2004 issue. Another writer was named a fellow this year, too: New Yorker music critic Alex Ross.
The Virginia Quarterly Review
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
A 31-year old winning the MacArthur … I hardly think she merits it. Surely there are more deserving choice who might not be married to doctors, who have toiled away in obscurity creating more difficult, less trendy work? and do you mean she is moving to Colombia or Columbia University? Alex Ross is an even worse choice for a MacArthur, why give fellowship money to one of the highest paid practitioners? Yuck, it’s become such a farce.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I agree with “For Real”…
I’m in the MA writing program at Johns Hopkins where Ms. Adichie was a student. The biggest open secret in the literary world is that awards (including the Mac) are all about politics – even though everyone keeps insisting that’s not the case.
But let’s be clear – it’s always been that way (Plato was pissed because he couldn’t get his work published – wasn’t good looking enough and didn’t hang with the right crowd) and – would we want it any other way?
Please don’t misunderstand; I think Adichie is a bad choice because her work just isn’t that good (and making a black woman from Africa “chic” is a morally toxic idea and insisting that she got the award because she’s good is of course a matter of opinion but insisting – as people will – that criticizing her is a form of racism is in truth itself a form of racism as it puts her in a prefabricated box called Cause of the Moment and puts her critics in a ghetto ).
But of course, one’s writing is inextricably linked to one’s politics and one’s politics are inextricably linked to who you know and what they think of you (and your writing).
I just wish the “establishment” would admit it and stop pretending that the quality of the work is the only criterion – it’s not and we all know it.