Albert Chinualumogu Achebe is a Nigerian-born writer, poet, professor, literary critic and author of one of the most important and best selling books in postcolonial fiction: Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. apart from his literary achievements, Achebe becme ambassador of Nigeria and co-founded Citadel Press in 1967 with eminent writer Christopher Okigbo.

Apart from writing more than 20 novels, he has a brilliant career as a literary critic. A very good example of this is his passionate criticism of Joseph Conrad as a racist for his inhuman depiction of Africans in his novel Heart of Darkness, a view shared with another giant of literary criticism, Edward Said. He has written extensively about African culture and the postcolonial situation of African nations in their independence period.

Achebe has received numerous prizes throughout his career such as the Margaret Wrong Prize, the New Statesman Jock Campbell Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, and the 2007 Man Booker International award.