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You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

for you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today, my guest is Chris Abani.

His novel, Graceland, has recently been published by Farras Strauss and Giroux.

His book of poetry, Daphne's Lot, was published by Redhead

Press. He has an earlier book of poetry as well as a thriller that he wrote when he was 16 years

old. This is a case that I'm looking forward to discussing because from the thriller, which was called Masters of the Board and was a kind of Nazi Third Reich thriller, the young man who wrote that novel was arrested in Nigeria and put into prison because it was claimed that the book had provided a blueprint

for an attempted coup d'etat.

Correct.

And in prison, the author learned a level of political consciousness that led to poetry,

playwriting, adjutop theater that led to further arrests and eventual repatriation, if I'm not mistaken, in London for a time.

Yes.

And then another book of poetry, which led him interestingly to the writing program at the University

of Southern California.

And this novel, Graceland, published by Farris-Strauss and Cheru, which was written

while in the creative writing program there.

Correct.

So you've got an interest in writing that's lifelong and blossoms more and more along literary and moral lines as you go along.

...