TESS ONWUEME BIOGRAPHY --Internationally renowned for her award-winning plays, Dr. The Desert Encroaches and the Reign of Wazobia become staples of....
A Nigerian playwright, scholar and poet, who rose to prominence writing plays with themes of social justice, culture, and the environment.
Early Life and Education of Tess Onwueme
Nigerian-born playwright and Nobel Prize in Literature nominee for 2016, Tess Onwueme rose to prominence writing plays about social justice, women, culture and the environment.
In 2010, she became the eminent Professor of Global Letters at University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire.
She has won several international awards, including the Fonlon-Nichols award, the Phyllis Wheatley/Nwapa award for outstanding black writers, the Martin Luther King, Jr./Caeser Chavez Distinguished Writers Award, the Distinguished Authors Award, and the Association of Nigerian Authors Drama Prize which she has won for her plays The Desert Encroaches (1985), Tell It To Women (1995), Then She Said It (2003) and Shakara: Dance-Hall Queen (2006).
Among her other award-winning works are: The Missing Face (2002), No Vacancy (2005), Legacies (1989), The Broken Calabash (1984), The Reign of Wazobia (1989, 2014), Why the Elephant Has No Butt (2000), and What Mama Said (2004).