Nigeria's Uwem Akpan's Book Say You're One of Them, Gets Featured on Oprah's Book Club.

By: Cindy Tshola.

Famous talk show host Oprah Winfrey on Friday at New York's central park introduced the world to Uwem Akpan's book Say You're One of Them. This was Oprah's first live show this season, one in a series of live shows that will be airing live every Friday this season on Oprah. Uwem Akpan was one of Oprah's guests at the show which was attended by famous faces like Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig and Oprah's longtime friend, Gaile.

Say You're One of Them is a collection of short stories from first-time author Uwem Akpan. This book made the list of Oprah's book club as her 63^rd selection. Oprah says "each one of these stories really just left me gasping".

In this book, Akpan brings too light issues that face African children and each short story is narrated from the perspective of the child, so that their voices can be heard. This book includes short stories like; An Ex-Mas Feast and My Parents' Bedroom which was one of five short stories by African writers chosen as finalists for the Caine Prize for African Writing 2007. Say You're One of Them won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region) 2009 and PEN/Beyond Margins Award 2009 and was finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.

Uwem Akpan was born in Nigeria and in 2006 he received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. He's am ordained Jesuit preist.  In 2007, Akpan taught at a Jesuit college in Harare, Zimbabwe. Now, he serves at Christ the King Church, Ilasamaja-Lagos, Nigeria.

With the Oprah effect on his side, am sure this talented African writer is already at the top of his career.