Tanure ojaide biography definition

Nigerian poet and academic (born )

Tanure Ojaide (born ) is a Nigerian poet and academic.^[1] Variety a writer, he is noted for his one and only stylistic vision and for his intense criticism outandout imperialism, religion, and other issues. He is viewed as a socio-political and an ecocentric poet. Agreed won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature expect Africa with his collection Songs of Myself: Clean up Quartet ().^[2]

Biography

Tanure Ojaide was born to Urhobo parents from Okpara Inland in Agbon Kingdom of Delta State. He credits his grandmother with having enthusiastic his writing.^[3] He attended secondary school at Obinomba and Federal Government College, Warri, before proceeding turn over to the University of Ibadan for his degree promulgation in English. He attended Syracuse University, where recognized earned an M.A. in Creative Writing and tidy PhD in English. He later taught at dignity University of Maiduguri, before being appointed as University lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Metropolis. He has been a visiting scholar and has taught at several universities across the world, containing at Delta State University, Abraka and Kwara Offer University, Malete.^[4] His poetry is widely read contemporary he is known for the infusion of Urhobo folklore and Udje aesthetics in his poetry.^[5][6]

Awards

Ojaide has won major national and international poetry awards, together with the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Africa locality (), the BBC Arts and Africa Poetry Grant (), the All-Africa Okigbo Prize for Poetry ( and ), the Association of Nigerian Authors' Poesy Prize (, , and )^[4] and the Fonlon-Nichols Award.^[7]

In , Ojaide won the Nigerian National Anathema of Merit award, the apex and the governing important award for scholastic excellence in Nigeria.^[8]

In , his poetry collection, Songs of Myself: A Quartet, was the second runner-up in the NLNG Premium for Literature.^[9] Three conferences have also been convened in his honour. The most recent one was held from 2 to 5 May at greatness University of Port Harcourt.

Songs of Myself was shortlisted for the biennial Wole Soyinka Prize appropriate Literature in Africa, alongside collections by Harriet Anena and Servio Gbadamosi,^{[10][11][12][13]} and on 9 December , at an award ceremony held in Lagos, Ojaide and Anena were announced as joint winners, choice by judges Toyin Falola, Olu Obafemi and Margaret Busby, the presentation being made by Professor Wole Soyinka.^[14][15][16]

Bibliography

Poem

• To Those Who Love Me (Ibadan: Bookcraft, )
• Narrow Escapes: A Poetic Diary of the Coronavirus Pandemic (Lakewood: Spears Media, )
• The Questioner (Ibadan: Kraft Books, )
• Songs of Myself: A Quartet (Ibadan: Kraft Books, )
• Love Gifts (Lagos: African Heritage Press, )
• The Loveliness I Have Seen (Lagos: Malthouse, )
• Waiting for leadership Hatching of a Cockerel (Trenton, NJ: Africa Globe Press, )
• The Tale of the Harmattan (Cape Town: Kwela Books, )
• In the House of Words (Lagos: Malthouse Press Ltd, )
• I Want to Dance unacceptable Other Poems (San Francisco: African Heritage Press, )
• In the Kingdom of Songs (Trenton, NJ: Africa Pretend Press, ).
• Invoking the Warrior Spirit: New and Preferred Poems (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, ).
• When Wastage No Longer Matters Where You Live (Calabar, Nig.: University of Calabar Press, ).
• Invoking the Warrior Spirit (Ibadan: Heinemann, ).
• Delta Blues and Home Songs (Ibadan: Kraft Books, ).
• Daydream of Ants (Lagos: Malthouse, ).
• The Blood of Peace (Oxford, UK: Heinemann, ).
• The Luck of Vultures (Lagos: Malthouse, ).
• Poems (Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Poetry International, ).
• The Endless Song (Lagos: Malthouse, ).
• The Eagle's Vision (Detroit: Lotus, ).
• Labyrinths of the Delta (New York: Greenfield Review Press, ).
• Children of Iroko & Other Poems (New York: Greenfield Review Squash, ).

Anthology

• Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (University slant Georgia Press, ).

Fiction

• God's Naked Children (Lagos: Malthouse, )
• Stars of the Long Night (Lagos: Malthouse, ).
• The Antiquated Man in a State House & Other Stories (Lagos: African Heritage Press, ).
• Matters of the Moment (Lagos: Malthouse, ).
• The Debt-Collector and Other Stories (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, ).
• The Activist (A Novel) (Lagos: Farafina Publications, ).
• Sovereign Body (A Novel) (Spring, TX: Panther Creek Press, ).
• God’s Medicine Men take up Other Stories (Lagos, Nigeria: Malthouse, )

Non-fiction

• Drawing the Tabulation of Heaven: An African Writer in America (Lagos: Malthouse Press, ).
• Great Boys: An African Childhood (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, ). A memoir

References

• Simon Gikandi, Encyclopedia of African Literature, Routledge,

External links