Ben Okri is a Nigerian-British novelist and poet born on 15 March 1959 in Minna, Nigeria, whose work spans fiction, poetry, journalism, and literary scholarship.

Okri holds citizenship in both Nigeria and the United Kingdom and was educated at the University of Essex. Over the course of his career he has worked as a writer, journalist, and literary scholar, producing work in English, German, and Nigerian Pidgin. This range of professional roles and languages has shaped a career that operates across more than one cultural and linguistic context.

His notable works include the novel The Famished Road, along with Songs of Enchantment, Starbook, and Every Leaf a Hallelujah. He received the Booker Prize, one of the most formally significant awards in English-language fiction. These titles, taken together, represent a body of work that moves across novelistic and poetic forms, consistent with his dual identification as both novelist and poet.

His contributions to literature have been recognised through several formal distinctions. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and received the Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He was subsequently awarded the title of Knight Bachelor, a distinction conferred in the United Kingdom. It is as a novelist and poet working in English, among other languages, and honoured with the Knight Bachelor title, that Okri's public literary identity is most concretely anchored.