User:Kemi Atanda Ilori

WOLE SOYINKA & OTHER POEMS

Wole Soyinka and Other Poems is the much-awaited collection of poems from Dr Kemi Atanda Ilori.

Oluwakemi Atanda Ilori (Kemi Atanda Ilori) was born in 1959 in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He studied at the University of Ife in Nigeria (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) and then in the United Kingdom at Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford, where he gained degrees in Drama, Literature and Housing. He lectured from 1983 to 1990 at the University of Ife, where most of his early poems were published in Sokoti, Ijala and ISALA. The University published his Voices of The Hurricane in its monograph series in 1983. The Association of Nigerian Authors published his Amnesty in 1988.

Ilori's poetry combines the lyricism of oral performance with the elegance of postmodern diction. He focuses relentlessly on the postcolonial challenges facing Nigeria - the raw politics, the rough justice and the rueful military and civilian administrations. In-between the harsh imagery of corruption and injustice, Ilori finds quality space for hope and redemption, love and laughter, often in a tender self-critical manner. This collection shows Ilori as an adept craftsman whose words sculpt Nigeria's postcolonial humdrum blues into something both vivid and engrossing. Several of the poems are either tributes to Wole Soyinka for his fearless activism, or intuitive commentaries on Soyinka's themes.

Ilori moved to the United Kingdom in 1990 and found a new career in Housing in 1993. He rose through the ranks and became the Director of Housing Services with Manningham Housing Association in Bradford in 2002, a post he held until 2011. He has been the Pastor of Living Hope Church since its inception, first in Nigeria and, latterly, in the UK. In addition to poetry, Ilori has published essays on Nigerian drama and theatre. He is currently developing research towards a book on the theatre of Wole Soyinka.

Wole Soyinka and Other Poems is published by Universal Books UK and out at retail outlets and online from Friday 4th July, 2014 in celebration of Wole Soyinka’s 80th birthday on 13th July, 2014. For this and future titles from Universal Books UK, visit www.universalbooksuk.org. If you wish to publish with Universal Books UK, please visit www.universalbooksuk.co.uk.

Here is an excerpt from the collection:

FOR WOLE SOYINKA

(Our own WS) In vain, so far, the quill’s quintessence

Your mount of scrolls on the stools of state

Your wanton tools whet on their marked pumice

At once the sentinel of their conscience

Men armoured in carapace of Night

Yet dance upon caryatids, foil dusk in funeral parlours

Sculpt your earth into maidens of rust, spread their skirts

In charnel rooms as refugees from light

In vain you invade their clandestine catacombs

Their eyes have long disappeared into the holes in the road

Their sceptic ears loaned to mourners abroad

Return in aid-boats loaded with septic honeycombs...

(To read more, visit www.universalbooksuk.org.)