Ogaga Ifowodo

Writer

Ogaga Ifowodo, a lawyer, has previously published five collections: Homeland & Other Poems which in manuscript won the 1993 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) poetry prize; Madiba, winner of the ANA/Cadbury poetry prize; The Oil Lamp which won the ANA/Gabriel Okara poetry prize and A Good Mourning and Augusta’s Poodle which were nominated for the NLNG Nigerian literature prize. His poems have been widely published in several anthologies and literary journals across the world, including Presence Africaine, Voices from all Over: Poems with Notes and Activities, The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry International, The Massachusetts Review, Crazyhorse, The Dalhousie Review, Atlanta Review, Mantis and Migrations (an Afro-Italian anthology selected by Wole Soyinka). Excerpts from his detention memoirs which is in progress have been included in the anthologies Gathering Seaweed: African Prison Writing and NW 14: The Anthology of New Writing, as well as in Vanguard and the online magazine African Writing. His scholarly study, History, Trauma, and Healing in Postcolonial Narratives was published by Palgrave Macmillan. He is a recipient of the PEN USA Barbara Goldsmith Freedom-to-Write Award and of the Poets of All Nations (Netherlands) “Free Word” Award. He is an honorary member of the PEN centres of the USA, Canada and Germany and a fellow of the Iowa Writing Programme. In proof of Shelley’s declaration that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, he lost his bid for the Nigerian House of Representatives in 2015 and for a seat in the Delta State House of Assembly in 2021!