A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

Gabriel Okara was born in Bumoundi (in present-day Bayelsa State), Nigeria in 1921. He studied art and writing at Yaba Higher College, and journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. In 1953 he won the Best All-Around award at the Nigerian Festival of Art for his poem “Call of the River Nun,” which would later be published in the literary magazine, Black Orpheus. His published poetry collections include The Dreamer, His Vision (2004), which won the 2005 NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, and The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978), for which he won the Commonwealth Joint Poetry Award in 1979. He died in 2019 in Yenagoa, Nigeria.