INCOMPLETE WORKS OF PROF. NIYI OSUNDARE
Please find below a compilation of incomplete
works and a brief biography of Prof. Niyi Osundare, courtesy of the
International Writers Association (IWA). For additional details about IWA,
please visit https://internationalwritersassociationonline.blogspot.com/
or contact them via email at internationalwritersassociatio@gmail.com.
- Songs from the Marketplace
(1983)-
- Village
Voices (1984)-
- The
Eye of the Earth (1986, winner of a Commonwealth
Poetry Prize and the poetry prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors)
- A
Nib in the Pond (1986)-
- Moonsongs (1988)-
- Songs
of the Season (1999)-
- Waiting
Laughters (1990, winner of the Noma
Award)
- Niyi
Osundare: Selected Poems (Heinemann African Poets) (1992)-
- Midlife (1993)-
- Seize
the Day (1995)-
- Thread
in the Loom: Essays on African Literature and Culture (2002)-
- The
Word is an Egg (2002)-
- Pages
from the Book of the Sun: New and Selected Poems (2002)-
- The
State Visit (2002, play)-
- Early
Birds: Poems for Junior Secondary, Book One, Book Two, Book Three (2004)-
- Two
Plays (2005)-
- Tender
Moments: Love Poems (2006)-
- City
Without People: The Katrina Poems
(2011)-
- Random
Blues (2011)-
- Only
If the Road Could Talk
(2017)-
- Snapsongs:
Homegroans and Foreignflares
(2021)-
- Green:
Sighs of Our Ailing Planet
(2022)- (a sequel to The Eye of
the Earth, 1986)
DOCUMENTARY
In 2016, Osundare, along with his lifelong
friend, the Sierra Leonean poet Syl
Cheney-Coker, was the subject of a documentary called The Poets, by director Chivas
DeVinck. The film follows Osundare and Cheney-Coker on a road-trip through Sierra Leone
and Nigeria
as they discuss their friendship and how their life experiences have shaped
their art.
SHORT
BIOGRAPHY
Prof. Niyi Osundare is a Poet, dramatist, critic,
essayist, and media columnist, Niyi Osundare has authored 18 books of poetry,
two books of selected poems, (with individual poems in over 70 journals and
magazines across the world), four plays, a book of essays, and numerous
monographs and articles on literature, language, culture, and society. He
regards his calling as a writer and his profession as a teacher as essentially
complementary. He was educated on three continents: B.A. (Honours) from the
University of Ibadan, Nigeria, M.A. from the University of Leeds in England,
and Ph.D. from York University, Toronto, Canada. The wide and varied exposure
accruing from this has proved very useful for his writing and teaching careers.
Born in Nigeria, one of the most linguistically
and culturally heterogeneous countries in the world, he learnt early in life
the complexities and challenges of diversity. He began his teaching career at
the University of Ibadan in 1974 and rose to the position of full professor
there in 1989. From 1993 to 1997, he was the Chair of its Department of
English. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
1990 to 1991, and in 1991/92, an Associate Professor of English at the
University of New Orleans, to which he returned as full professor in 1997, and
was selected University Research Professor in 2001 and Distinguished Professor
of English in 2011.
Dr. Osundare's areas of specialization are
African Literature, Literature of the African Diaspora, Literary Stylistics,
Sociolinguistics, and Creative Writing. In 2005, he was selected Fellow of the
Nigeria Academy of Letters (NAL), the country's highest Academy for the
Humanities. About his passion for teaching, he has this to say: "For me,
the classroom is a vital space inhabited - no, lived - by students and teachers
as partners, even collaborators, in a process of intellectual and social
inquiry and exchange .... I strive to be the kind of teacher who challenges and
inspires..."
For his creative works, Osundare has received
many prizes and awards: the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize, the
Cadbury/ANA Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (which he won on two different
occasions, 1989 and 1994), the Noma Award (Africa's most prestigious book
award), the Tchicaya U Tam'si Award for African Poetry, and the Fonlon/Nichols
Award for "excellence in literary creativity combined with significant
contributions to Human Rights in Africa". He was the recipient of the 2014
Nigerian National Merit Award, Nigeria's highest recognition for distinguished
academic and creative achievement. He has carried out readings and performances
of his works in many parts of the world, and his poems have been translated
into French, Italian, Slovenian, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, and
Serbian. In 2016, he was awarded the Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) honoris causa,
by his alma mater, the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has also been a
recipient of honorary doctorates from the Universite de Toulouse-le Mirail in
France and Franklin Pierce University in Rindge New Hampshire, USA. He was
a columnist for Newswatch, a prominent Nigerian newsmagazine; he maintains
a weekly poetry column (Lifelines) in Nigeria's Sunday Tribune,
and is a frequent newspaper, radio, and television commentator on current
affairs. In June 2016, he was installed the pioneer Chair of the Advisory Board
of the new Ibadan Literary Society (ILS), based in Ibadan, Nigeria.
