Soji Cole

Last updated
Soji Cole
2018 NLNG Prize for Literature winner Soji Cole.jpg
Dr. Soji Cole in his office (2018)
BornOlusoji Henry Cole
Mushin Oloosa, Lagos State, Nigeria
Occupation Writer
Nationality Nigerian
CitizenshipNigeria
Alma mater University of Ibadan
Genre Short story, Realistic fiction, drama
Years active2020 - present
Notable awards Nigeria Prize for Literature

Soji Cole is a Nigerian academic, playwright and author. He is the 2018 recipient of the Nigeria Prize for Literature. [1] His research areas are on drama therapy, trauma studies and cross-cultural performance research. [2] [3]

Contents

His book, Embers was listed as one of the best Nigerian books for 2018 by Dailytrust Newspaper. [4]

Early life and education

Born on 27 December 1976, Olusoji Henry Cole was born into the family of Mr Gbadebo John Cole and Mrs Gbemisola Adunni Cole at Mushin Oloosa, Lagos, Nigeria

Cole is an alumnus of University of Ibadan. [5] [6] He was also a visiting fellow at University of Roehampton. [7]

Writing career

Cole disclosed to Dailytrust that writing short stories was how he got his first publication. Speaking on challenges of emerging authors in Nigeria, he singled financial constraints and infrastructural decline as factors diminishing the litOloerary drive in the country. He also recounted how electricity was a huge challenge while writing his novels. [8] In an interview with The Sun, Cole recalled that he began writing while in elementary school just to feel among his age-groups. He also narrated how My Little Stream became his first published novel. [9] He published his first play, Maybe Tomorrow (2014), a story based on the plight of the people in the Niger Delta. The book was long-listed for the 2014 Nigeria Prize for Literature, and won the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) award. [10] [11] In October 2018, Cole book Embers emerged best out of 89 entries that qualified for the 2018 Nigeria Prize for Literature. The book was on the impact of religious and ethnic violence on the living conditions of persons in Northern Nigeria. [12]

Bibliography

Recognition

Aside the awards won below, Cole has been shortlisted for Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and BBC World Playwriting Competition. [7] [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wole Soyinka</span> Nigerian writer

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, for "in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category. Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigerian literature</span> Literature of Nigerians

Nigerian literature may be roughly defined as the literary writing by citizens of the nation of Nigeria for Nigerian readers, addressing Nigerian issues. This encompasses writers in a number of languages, including not only English but Igbo, Urhobo, Yoruba, and in the northern part of the county Hausa and Nupe. More broadly, it includes British Nigerians, Nigerian Americans and other members of the African diaspora.

Niyi Osundare is a leading African poet, dramatist, linguist, and literary critic. Born on March 12, 1947 in Ikere-Ekiti, Nigeria, his poetry is influenced by the oral poetry of his Yoruba culture, which he capaciously hybridizes with other poetic traditions of the world, including African American, Latin American, Asian, and European.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chika Unigwe</span> Nigerian-born Igbo author (born 1974)

Chika Nina Unigwe is a Nigerian-born Igbo author who writes in English and Dutch. In April 2014 she was selected for the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Previously based in Belgium, she now lives in the United States.

Tanure Ojaide is a Nigerian poet and academic. As a writer, he is noted for his unique stylistic vision and for his intense criticism of imperialism, religion, and other issues. He is regarded as a socio-political and an ecocentric poet. He won the 2018 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa with his collection Songs of Myself: A Quartet (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lola Shoneyin</span> Nigerian poet and author (born 1974)

Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian poet and author who launched her debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, in the UK in May 2010. Shoneyin has forged a reputation as an adventurous, humorous and outspoken poet, having published three volumes of poetry. Her writing delves into themes related to female sexuality and the difficulties of domestic life in Africa.In April 2014 she was named on the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define trends in African literature. Lola won the PEN Award in America as well as the Ken Saro-Wiwa Award for prose in Nigeria. She was also on the list for the Orange Prize in the UK for her debut novel, The Secret of Baba Segi's Wives, in 2010. She lives in Lagos, Nigeria, where she runs the annual Aké Arts and Book Festival. In 2017, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by Brittle Paper.

Tade Ipadeola is a Nigerian poet who writes in English and Yoruba. He is a practising lawyer. In 2013 his poetry collection The Sahara Testaments won the prestigious Nigeria Prize for Literature instituted by the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG). In 2009, he won the Delphic Laurel in Poetry for his Yoruba poem "Songbird" at the Delphic Games in Jeju, South Korea.

Ladipo Ayodeji Banjo, is a Nigerian Emeritus professor of English language, educational administrator, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria as well as former pro-chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abubakar Adam Ibrahim</span> Nigerian writer and journalist

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim is a Nigerian writer and journalist. He was described by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle as a northern Nigerian "literary provocateur" amidst the international acclaim his award-winning novel Season of Crimson Blossoms received in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elnathan John</span> Nigerian novelist, satirist and lawyer (born 1982)

Elnathan John is a Nigerian novelist, satirist and lawyer whose stories have twice been shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing.

Ikeogu Oke was a Nigerian author, journalist and award-winning poet. In 2017, he won the Nigeria Prize for Literature for his first collection of poetry The Heresiad.

Su'eddie Vershima Agema is a Nigerian poet, editor and literary administrator. He is also a culture promoter. Author of two poetry collections, Bring our Casket Home: Tales one Shouldn’t Tell, and Home Equals Holes: Tale of an Exile, a short story collection, The Bottom of Another Tale and the NLNG Nigeria prize for literature 2022 nominated shortlisted book - Memory and the Call of Water. Agema is a past Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) as well as Council Member, National Teen Authorship Scheme.

Parrésia, also Parrésia Publishers Ltd, is a publishing company in Nigeria founded by Azafi Omoluabi Ogosi and Richard Ali in 2012 with the aim of selling books to the Nigerian reading audience and promote the freedom of the imagination and the free press. It was described in 2017 by The New York Times as one of "a handful of influential new publishing houses" in Africa in the last decade.

Ogaga Ifowodo is a Nigerian lawyer, scholar, poet, columnist/public commentator and human rights activist. He was awarded the 1998 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, given to writers "anywhere in the world who have fought courageously in the face of adversity for the right to freedom of expression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigeria Prize for Literature</span> Nigerias literary award

Nigeria Prize for Literature is a Nigerian literary award given annually since 2004 to honor literary erudition by Nigerian authors. The award rotates among four genres; fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature, repeating the cycle every four years. With the total prize value of US$100,000 to individual winner, it is the biggest literary award in Africa and one of the richest literary awards in the world.

Chijioke Amu-Nnadi is a Nigerian poet and author. His poem poetry was his first published work, appearing in the 1987 anthology of new Nigerian poetry, Voices from the Fringe, edited by Harry Garuba.

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo is a Nigerian author and educator, whose published work includes novels, poetry, short stories, books for children, essays and journalism. She is the winner of several awards in Nigeria, including the Nigeria Prize for Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otosirieze Obi-Young</span> Writer and editor (b. 1994)

Otosirieze Obi-Young is a Nigerian writer, editor, culture journalist and curator. He is editor-in-chief of Open Country Mag, an African literary magazine. He was editor of Folio Nigeria, a CNN affiliate that covers Nigerian art, business, and entertainment. He was deputy editor of online literary magazine Brittle Paper. In 2019, he won the inaugural The Future Awards Africa Prize for Literature. He has been described as among the "top curators and editors from Africa" and listed among "the 100 most influential young Nigerians."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayodele Olofintuade</span> Nigerian writer, journalist and feminist

Ayodele Olofintuade is a Nigerian writer, journalist, and feminist. She identifies as queer and non-binary in Nigeria, which is an anti-LGBTQ country.

Yejide Kilanko is a Nigerian Canadian fiction writer and social worker. She is known for addressing violence against women in her work. Her debut novel, Daughters Who Walk This Path, was a Canadian fiction bestseller in 2012.

References

  1. "Pomp, drama as Soji Cole wins 2018 Nigeria Prize for Literature". Nigerian Tribune.
  2. "Soji Cole" . Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  3. "Soji Cole" . Retrieved 2018-12-31.
  4. "15 best books of 2018". Dailytrust. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  5. Unibadan Press. "Dr SOJI COLE, wins NLNG Prize for Literature". University of Ibadan . Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  6. "Writer on the rise: Embers earns Soji Cole $100,00 NLNG literature prize". Sun. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  7. 1 2 "JUDGES FOR THE NIGERIAN STUDENTS POETRY PRIZE (NSPP) 2018" . Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  8. Bivan, Nathaniel (November 10, 2018). "I endured mosquitoes writing prize-winning book". Daily Trust. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Soji Cole: How I won the NLNG prize". Sun newspaper. November 24, 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  10. 1 2 "NLNG, A Tedious Journey of Expectation & Anxiety – Soji Cole". Leadership Newspaper. November 23, 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  11. Ajeluorou, Anote (October 14, 2018). "Absence of clout around literature diminishes its cause". Guardian. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  12. Duru, Prisca-Sam (October 20, 2018). "Soji Cole wins $100,000 NLNG Prize for Literature". Vanguard. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
  13. "International radio playwriting competition 2007". BBC. Retrieved 2018-12-23.