User:TONI KAN

TONI KAN (Anthony Kan Onwordi) Toni Kan (born 11 June 1971) is a Nigerian writer, editor, pr executive, ideas man and teacher who calls Lagos, Nigeria home.

BIOGRAPHY Toni Kan was born in Ibusa, in what is now Delta State to teacher parents, Mr. Louis Ozulonye Onwordi and Mrs. Patricia Oyibo Onwordi. He had 5 siblings – four brothers and one sister. The eldest Charles Emeka Onwordi died from Cancer of the Colon in December 2010. Toni Kan’s father graduated from the University of Ibadan on the day he was born and the water reservoir in his village collapsed on the same day leaving parts of the town flooded.

EDUCATION AND EARLY CAREER As the son of a teacher who was often transferred from school to school, Toni Kan attended 6 primary schools in 5 different towns before graduation. He also attended two secondary schools, St. Augustine’s Secondary School in Ibusa where he did his form 1 and 2 before transferring to St. Patrick’s College Asaba, immortalized by the Eghosa Imasuen novel, To St. Patrick. For his university education, Toni Kan who had applied to study Medicine at the University of Jos was offered Chemistry but changed to English Literature and received a university scholar award as Best First Year student. Of the 48 books recommended on their first year reading list for Introduction to Fiction, Toni Kan who grew up surrounded by books, had read 47 of them except Ben Okri’s ‘The Landscape Within’ which would be later republished as ‘Dangerous Love’. He took an M.A in English (Literature) at the University of Lagos in 1999 and graduated at the top of his Class. He would graduate at the top of his class in 1995 and after a move to Lagos in 1996 became a magazine editor at 26. His career trajectory has spanned journalism, banking, telecoms, publishing and public relations.

LITERARY CAREER Toni Kan was famously described by Nduka Otiono, PhD as the most anthologized writer of his generation. His writing career began at age eleven after he received Ben Okri’s debut novel, ‘Flowers and Shadows’ as a birthday present from his father and he would thereafter try his hands at poetry, fiction and essays. His admission into the university of Jos and consequent interaction with young aspiring writers like David Njoku, Terhemen Agbedeh, Allen Abdul Jabber Omale, Ralph Bruce, Chike Ofili, Olu Jacobs and many others as well as deeply encouraging and inspirational teachers like Kanchana Ugbabe, Zack Orbundeh, Obiwu, Ioratim Uba and Nicholas Pweddon led to the honing of his craft. In 1992, he won a British Council Essay Competition which came with a stint at the University of Edinburgh summer school. That trip with its multidisciplinary curriculum as well as exposure to many British writers and academics hardened his resolve to pursue a writing career. In 1994, Toni Kan won the Swiss Radio Essay competition and spent that Fall in Bern and Zurich. By this time, he had been made a contributing editor to Hints Magazine and would become Editor of the magazine 2 years after graduation and joining in a full time capacity. His writing career had taken off fully by that time and Toni would go on to win prizes at the Liberty Short Story Competition, The MUSON poetry competition, and become a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors. His works have appeared in many anthologies and journals like Drumvoices Revue; Ashes and Diamonds; Little Drops; WE-MEN; Ink Wells; Poets at Work; 25 New Nigerian Poets;  Observing Life; Sentinel Poetry Quarterly; Farafina, Post Express Literary Series, ANA Review, The Guardian, Thisday, Salthill, www.boellnigeria.org; Agni, Wasafiri, Sunday Sun and many others.

PUBLISHED WORKS COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES Nights of the Creaking Bed							2008 NOVEL Ballad of Rage     								       2004 COLLECTION OF POEMS: When a Dream Lingers Too Long 						2002 Songs of Absence and Despair,							 2010

ROMANCE NOVELS: Soul Mates										2000 When Love Calls									2000 Stolen Kisses									1998 Forever and A Day								1997 BIOGRAPHICAL NOVELS: Diana: Unanswered Questions							1998 Bill Clinton: Sex in The White House						1998 SHORT STORIES: The Harbinger in Agni 72							2010 Keme in the journal Drumvoices Revue					2004 Traces in the anthology, Ashes and Diamonds				2001 It was Christmas in the anthology Little Drops				1999 That time of the month in the anthology WE-MEN				1999 Age of Iron in the anthology Ink Wells					1999

POEMS: When a Dream Lingers Too Long in the anthology Poets at Work 	2003 And he whispered stolen words and A prayer for a good death in the Anthology 25 New Nigerian Poets						2001 An old couple holding hands in the anthology Observing Life		1998 What shall become of us and other poems in Sentinel Poetry Quarterly 										2004

MAJOR ESSAYS: Distinguishing between the naked and the nude: Love and lust in contemporary Nigerian fiction	(Farafina online)			2005 Up in Smoke: Cigarettes as characters in Heinrich Boll’s Short Fiction (www.boellnigeria.org)								2004 Censorship and Big Brother Africa (The Guardian)			2003 Heralds of a New Dawn: Poets to Watch in the New Millennium	2001 Understanding Post-modernism: Chaos or order			1999 Magical realism, Aesthetic Pluralism and Post Colonial reconstruction (PELS)1998 Locating the Post Colony in Post-Colonial Discourse (PELS)		1998 The Great Nigerian Novel		(PELS)				1997

GRANTS, AWARDS AND FESTIVALS ATTENDED Toni Kan,who is a Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, won the British Council sponsored Essay Competition “Why Study British Literature in Nigeria Today” in 1992; The Swiss Radio sponsored essay competition “Meet my Country, Meet the World” in 1994; The Liberty Short Story Competition, 1998 (3rd Prize); MUSON Poetry Competition, 2000 (3rd Prize); Heinrich Boll Writing Fellowship in Germany, 2003; Honourable Mention, ANA - Cadbury Poetry Prize, 2003 for debut poetry collection, When a Dream Lingers Too Long; was Shortlisted for the maiden NLNG Literature Prize	 in 2004 for novella Ballad of Rage; Honourable Mention ANA/Spectrum Prose Prize	in 2004 for Ballad of Rage; Winner, Prof. Wole Soyinka Award for Literature, 2004; Winner, Ken Saro Wiwa/NDDC Prose Prize, 2009 for Nights of the Creaking Bed; Winner, Civitella Ranieri Foundation Writing Fellowship, 2011. His academic laurels, aside from Best Graduating Student in his B.A and M.A classes, include: Winner: University Scholar Scheme, University of Jos in 1991 and the Winner: B.U Nwafor Memorial Prize for Best Final Year Project in 1995. He has attended and participated as guest writer, moderator and participant at the StoryMoja Hay Festival in Kenya, The Garden City Literary Festival in Portharcourt Nigeria, the Lagos Book and Art Festival in Lagos amongst others. RADI8 LIMITED Toni Kan is co-founder and Managing Partner at Radi8 Limited a company that is engaged in the provision of PR/Advertising, Design, Events planning and management services to a wide range of clients cutting across manufacturing, consulting, not for profit and oil and gas. REFERENCES 1.	http://judedibia-jd.blogspot.com/2009/01/two-novels.html. Two Novels 2.	http://allafrica.com/stories/200904130687.html: Nigeria: The Background Music to My Writing Life -Toni Kan 3.	http://www.bellanaija.com/2009/05/10/bn-bookaholic-qa-with-toni-kan/: BN Bookaholic: Q&A with Toni Kan 4.	http://bookshybooks.blogspot.com/2011/12/book-review-toni-kans-nights-of.html: Book Review: Toni Kan’s ‘Nights of the Creaking Bed’ 5.	http://www.smartmonkeytv.com/channel/reviews/toni_kan_author_of_nights_of_the_creaking_bed_on_his_next_novel_about_lagos 6.	http://www.naijastories.com/2010/09/can-you-creak-a-bed-like-this/ 7.	http://www.bellanaija.com/2009/04/29/bn-bookaholic-reviews-toni-kans-songs-of-absence-dispair/ 8.	http://postcardjunky.wordpress.com/tag/toni- 9.	http://www.bu.edu/agni/fiction/africa/kan.html 10.	http://www.africanwriter.com/author/toni-kan-onwordi/ 11.	http://xokigbo.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/dark-journey-a-squatters-tale/ 12.	http://guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100091:artsville&catid=180:arts&Itemid=707 13.	http://adetokunbohr.wordpress.com/tag/toni-kan/ 14.	http://www.ynaija.com/dana-air-politeness-is-killing-us-by-toni-kan/ 15.	http://whatsupnaija.blogspot.com/2009/10/book-review-toni-kan-nights-of-creaking.html