The Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe has passed away. He was 82 years old.

Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in 1958, his first novel and also his most well-known book. He also wrote Anthills of the Savannah, Arrow of God, and many other books. As a poet, he also released his Collected Poems. Exiled by civil war and politics, he spent many years teaching in the United States. Here is a quote Anthills of the Savannah to remember the great writer:

Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit — in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.

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Novelist Teju Cole published “Seven short stories about drones” on Twitter, mixing in violent unmanned aerial vehicle imagery with classic first lines from literature.

Web artist Josh Begley collected the short stories in a Storify post (embedded below).

The short short stories referenced seven famous novels. We’ve linked to free copies of the books, when available. The are, in order: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Ulysses by James Joyce, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The Trial by Franz Kafka, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Stranger by Albert Camus.

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While accepting the Mason Prize at George Mason University this weekend, novelist Stephen King gave fans a peek at a sequel to his classic novel, The Shining.

Above, we’ve embedded a short video clip from the event. Follow this link to read more about all the topics King discussed while receiving the award–past recipients included Chinua Achebe, Dave Eggers and Greg Mortenson.

Here’s more about the reading: “Doctor Sleep, his upcoming novel about a grown-up Danny Torrance from The Shining. In the book, Danny is a hospice worker who uses his powers to help ill patients to pass away without pain. Unfortunately, he runs afoul of a gang of wandering psychic vampires who feed on people’s energy.” (Via Matt Staggs)

Philip Roth has won the £60,000 Man Booker International Prize. Angry about the choice, Booker judge Carmen Callil resigned in protest.

It was the fourth time the bi-annual prize has been awarded–previous winners included Ismail Kadare, Chinua Achebe, and Alice Munro. Roth (pictured via Nancy Crampton) had this comment: “One of the particular pleasures I’ve had as a writer is to have my work read internationally despite all the heartaches of translation that that entails. I hope the prize will bring me to the attention of readers around the world who are not familiar with my work. This is a great honour and I’m delighted to receive it.”

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The BBC reports that Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, best known for his 1958 novel THINGS FALL APART, has won the Man Booker International Prize in honor of his literary career. The 76-year-old author beat out an impressive roster of writers including Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie for the 60,000 pound biannual prize, which will be presented to Achebe at a ceremony in Oxford on June 28.

Academic and author Elaine Showalter, who was one of the judges, said: “In THINGS FALL APART and his other fiction set in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe inaugurated the modern African novel. He also illuminated the path for writers around the world seeking new words and forms for new realities and societies. We honour his literary example and achievements.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who recently won the Orange Prize for Fiction, said of Achebe: “He is a remarkable man. The writer and the man. He’s what I think writers should be.”