Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka listed among world’s 50 ‘most inspiring‘ authors

Fearless, inventive, persistent, beautiful, or just plain — Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Uwem Akpan are listed among some of the living authors who shake us awake, challenge our ideas of who we are, embolden our actions, and, above all, inspire us to live life more fully and creatively.

 Chinua Achebe
The best-selling Nigerian novelist sets universal tales of personal and moral struggle in the context of the tragic drama of colonization. I see him as a king author.

Wole Soyinka
The first black writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, he's written in nearly ever genre while relentlessly pursuing freedom in his homeland of Nigeria.He is my favorite writer and my hero.

Uwem Akpan
His is the perfect story line: Jesuit priest from Nigeria becomes a best-selling, Oprah-chosen author. "I was inspired to write by the people who sit around my village church to share palm wine after Sunday Mass, by the Bible, and by the humor and endurance of the poor," he writes on his Web site.I am yet to read any of his book, but will do soon.

for complete list