Otiono, Nigerian poet, set to offer ‘bio-critical reflections’ on ‘Dispossessed’

Nduka Otiono, a Canada-based Nigerian professor and writer, is set to offer ‘bio-critical reflections’ on ‘Dispossessed’, a collection of poems by James Eze.

Since its release in October 2019, ‘Dispossessed’ has met widespread acceptance in the literary scene, raked in positive reviews, and set the record as the first poetry book “read to a full cabinet session of Nigeria’s government.”

In a press statement obtained by TheCable Lifestyle on Thursday, the event’s organizers said Otiono would be on hand to provide “biocritical reflections” on the poetry collection on December 14, 2019, in Awka.

Otiono, a programme coordinator at the Institute of African Studies, Carlton University, Ottawa, would also anchor a masterclass on creative writing at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Anambra state.

According to the organizers, the class would be held at the institution’s English and Literature Studies Department to wrap up activities marking the formal introduction of ‘Dispossessed’ to the reading audience.

Otiono won the ANA/Spectrum Prize with his debut collection of short stories ‘The Night Hides with a Knife’ and quickly followed it up with a poetry collection titled ‘Voices in the Rainbow’ — which made the final ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize list.

His second collected poems also won him the James Patrick Folinsbee Memorial Scholarship in creative writing as he gathered “enormous experience” working as a visiting assistant professor alongside Chinua Achebe at Brown University.

Several weeks after the release of ‘Dispossessed’, “further reviews by notable poets and writers have strengthened earlier impressions of the book and primed the audience on what to expect from its deceptive pages”.

In the poetry collection, James Eze wrote: “I often ran naked and blind into the rain singing songs that even the winds had no breath to whisper into the ears of the trees. Clothed in sheets of the glistening rain, I immersed myself in the ceremony of innocence until mother’s voice cut through the blinding showers to bring me back to earth.”