Teju Cole

The latest novel from Teju Cole follows Tunde, a West African born photography professor who spends a lot of time falling down different artistic and Google rabbit holes. 

Teju Cole on the Orchestra of St. Luke's "Sound and Stories" series.

Writer and photographer Teju Cole talks about his latest essay collection, "Known and Strange Things." 

Teju Cole talks about his new novel, Every Day Is for the Thief, about a young Nigerian living in New York City who goes home to Lagos for a visit, finding a city both familiar and strange. He taps into the energies of Lagos life—creative, malevolent, ambiguous—and slowly begins to make sense of the profound changes that have taken place in his country and in himself in the 15 years since he moved away.

Teju Cole is an art historian and a photographer as well as a writer. Find out what artists and writers influence him.

See Teju Cole's photographs on Flickr—in color and in black and white. You can also visit his web site to find out more about his work.

Teju Cole's debut novel, Open City, is about a young Nigerian doctor who wanders around Manhattan reflecting on his relationships, recent breakup, and his past. Although it's set in busy, crowded New York City, the novel explores themes of isolation, dislocation, and identity. The New Yorker called Open City "Beautiful, subtle—and original...A prismatic debut," and it was awarded the 2012 PEN/Hemingway Award.

Teju Cole was on Morning Edition this morning talking about composing Tweets about small, easily overlooked articles in the newspaper. Listen to that interview here!

And start reading his novel Open City and leave a comment or question for our Book Club discussion on May 7.