Chris Abani's prose includes the novels GraceLand, Masters of the Board and the novellas, Becoming Abigail and Song For Night. His poetry collections are Hands Washing Water , Dog Woman, Daphne's Lot and Kalakuta Republic.

He is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award & the PEN Hemingway Book Prize.