Tanure Ojaide

Biography

Tanure Ojaide was born in Nigeria in 1948. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a master's degree in creative writing and doctorate in English from Syracuse University. He has authored many collections of poetry, including Narrow Escape: A Poetic Diary of the Coronavirus Pandemic (2021), The Questioner (2018), Love Gifts (2013), The Beauty I Have Seen (2010), and Songs of Myself: A Quartet (2015), which won the 2018 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. His other awards include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Africa Region (1987), the All-Africa Okigbo Prize for Poetry (1988, 1997), the BBC Arts and Africa Poetry Award (1988), and the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Award (1988, 1994, 2003, and 2011). He serves as the Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Birth Date

1948-01-01

Place of Birth

Urhobo

Country of Nationality

Nigeria

Languages Spoken

Urhobo, English

Syracuse University, Syracuse University, University of Ibadan

Poetry Collections

• Narrow Escape: A Poetic Diary of the Coronavirus Pandemic (Denver: Spears Books, 2021) • The Questioner (Ibadan: Kraft Books, 2018) • Songs of Myself: A Quartet (Ibadan: Kraft Books, 2015) • Love Gifts (Lagos: African Heritage Press, 2013) • The Beauty I Have Seen (Lagos: Malthouse, 2010) • Waiting for the Hatching of a Cockerel (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2008) • The Tale of the Harmattan (Cape Town: Kwela Books, 2007; Ibadan, Nigeria: Kraft Books, 2015) • In the House of Words (Lagos: Malthouse Press Ltd, 2005) • I Want to Dance and Other Poems (San Francisco: African Heritage Press, 2003) • In the Kingdom of Songs (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2002). • Invoking the Warrior Spirit: New and Selected Poems (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000). • When It No Longer Matters Where You Live (Calabar, Nig.: University of Calabar Press, 1999). • Invoking the Warrior Spirit (Ibadan: Heinemann, 1999). • Delta Blues and Home Songs (Ibadan: Kraft Books, 1998). • Daydream of Ants (Lagos: Malthouse, 1997). • The Blood of Peace (Oxford, UK: Heinemann, 1991). • The Fate of Vultures (Lagos: Malthouse, 1990). • The Endless Song (Lagos: Malthouse, 1988). • The Eagle’s Vision (Detroit: Lotus, 1987). • Labyrinths of the Delta (New York: Greenfield Review Press, 1986). • Children of Iroko & Other Poems (New York: Greenfield Review Press, 1973).

Sources

"Biography - Tanure Ojaide." Hurs & Ryder, https://hursandryder.wordpress.com/tanure-ojaide/biography-tanure-ojaide/. Accessed 22 May 2022.
 
"Ojaide, Prof. Tanure." Biographical Legacy and Research Foundation, Nigeria (BLERF), https://blerf.org/index.php/biography/ojaide-prof-tanure/. Accessed 22 May 2022.
 
"Tanure Ojaide." Charlotte.edu, https://pages.charlotte.edu/tanure-ojaide/. Accessed 22 May 2022.
 
"Tanure Ojaide." Wikipedia, 11 October 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanure_Ojaide. Accessed 11 November 2024.
 
"Tanure Ojaide’s Narrow Escape Documents a Poet’s Journey Through the Pandemic.” Brittle Paper, 5 July 2021, https://brittlepaper.com/2021/07/tanure-ojaides-narrow-escape-documents-a-poets-journey-through-the-pandemic/. Accessed 22 May 2022.