In conjunction with the exhibition “Wandering Spirit: African Wax Prints,” the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery and the Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design will host a reading and book signing by Chigozie Obioma.

The event will be 5:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in Room 11 of the Home Economics Building. The event is free and open to the public as well as the university community.

Obioma, assistant professor of literature and creative writing, was short-listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his first novel, “The Fishermen.”

Born in Nigeria, Obioma is one of 12 children raised in Akure, in the southwestern part of the country. He completed a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at the University of Michigan. Obioma will read from “The Fishermen” and reflect on Nigerian culture and society. A book signing and reception will follow the reading in the Hillestad Gallery, on the second floor of the Home Economics Building. University Bookstore will have paperback and hardcover copies of “The Fishermen” available for purchase before and after the reading.

“Wandering Spirit: African Wax Prints” is an exhibition of patterned textiles that traces the developmental pathway of the African wax print and tells how these fabrics reflect the stories, cultures and personalities of the people who wear them. The history of the African wax print is a history embedded in colonial trade routes and dependent on globalization in the post-colonial era. Though not originally African, these textiles are widely associated with African culture and society, and loved and identified as Africans’ own. The exhibition opened in the Hillestad Gallery on Oct. 24 and runs through Nov. 23.

For more information on the exhibition, click here.