1. Teju Cole was born on June 27,1975 and is a Nigerian American writer, photographer, and art historian.
13 Facts About Teju Cole
1. 2.
Teju Cole is the author of a novella, Every Day Is for the Thief ; a novel, Open City ; an essay collection, Known and Strange Things ; a photobook, Punto d'Ombra ; and a second novel, Tremor.
3.
Teju Cole moved back to the United States at the age of 17 to attend Western Michigan University for one year, then transferred to Kalamazoo College, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1996.
4.
Teju Cole is the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard University and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
5.
Teju Cole is the author or co-author of several books, among them the novella Every Day Is for the Thief; the novel Open City; a collection of more than 40 essays, Known and Strange Things; and a photobook, Punto d'Ombra.
6.
Teju Cole was a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College.
7.
In 2016, Teju Cole published his first collection of essays and criticism.
8.
Teju Cole is a regular contributor to publications including the New York Times, Qarrtsiluni, Granta, The New Yorker, Transition magazine, The New Inquiry, and A Public Space.
9.
Teju Cole has been credited with coining the term "White Savior Industrial Complex" with a series of tweets followed by an article published in The Atlantic.
10.
The original series of tweets that precipitated the article elicited a response from NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof whom Teju Cole named as an example of a white savior.
11.
Alongside Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner, and Taiye Selasi, Teju Cole was one of six writers who protested the PEN American Center gala honoring the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo with its "Freedom of Expression Courage" award in April 2015 by withdrawing as co-hosts of the event.
12.
Teju Cole's photography was shown in a solo exhibition in Milan in 2016 called Punto d'ombra.
13.
For Performa 17, Teju Cole created the instillation Black Paper in which his photographs and videos were accompanied by a score of field recordings and readings of incisive text.