I am an Assistant Professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University specializing in the areas of creative writing (poetry, fiction, and non-fiction). My scholarship extends to African literary criticism and literature, memory studies, traumatic affect and research-creation, two poetry collections I am memory (Dada Books) which won the Carlos Idzia Ahmad Prize, second prize for the Anthony Agbo Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the Association of Nigeria Authors Prize. My second poetry collection, The Birth of Illusion (Fullpoint, 2015) was a finalist for the Association of Nigerian Authors’ Poetry Prize, and it was nominated for the $100, 000 NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature. A Small Silence (Cassava Republic, 2019) was nominated for the RSL Ondaatje prize shortlist and the Edinburgh Festival First Book Award. I have also written a children’s book, Grandma and the Moon’s Hidden Secret (Cassava Republic, 2022) which was nominated for the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature. My most recent publication is “Tracing the 'Missing Link’: Postcolonial Reconfigurations and Diasporic Imaginaries in Funso Aiyejina’s Writing” in Contemporary Diasporic African Writing, Ed. Tanure Ojaide and Lokangaka Losambe, Routledge (London, New York), May 2024.
JV