Nduka Otiono

Nduka Anthony Option is a Nigerian-Canadian professor, writer, poet, and a journalist. He is the Director, Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada and his multidisciplinary research addresses how street stories —popular urban narratives in postcolonial Africa—travel through many cultural formations, such as oral tradition, the press, movies, popular songs, and social networks. Quotes Incidentally, I have written about my work on Wreaths for a Wayfarer: An Anthology of Poems in Honour Pius Adesanmi in the Introduction to the book which was published in 2020 just before the waves of pandemic lockdowns. The book was inspired by the tragic demise of our friend and colleague, Pius Adesanmi who, until his death, was Professor of English and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University where I work. Having an international literary event such as we had on the last World Poetry Day and during the pandemic meant that we had to be at our wits’ end to make it successful. More so, given the speed with which it was planned as indicated above. The challenges of living and working during the pandemic notwithstanding, I am gratified by the kind of work I have been able to do during these home-bound months and season. Among others, I have been able to complete work on three books: an Oral literature book due out in June 2021; DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono due to be published in October 2021, and a new edition of my first book, The Night Hides with a Knife, to mark its silver jubilee anniversary. It’s difficult to pinpoint a specific experience that contributed to my becoming a poet. The idea of a specific incidence contributing to one “becoming a poet” presupposes that there was a trigger. I would rather see my calling as a poet as a natural progression of my sensibilities or sensitivities. I did not choose to become a poet. Poetry planted itself into my life as a creative artist, and I found myself writing short stories and then, poetry. I adopt a mixture both approaches. Some poems come to me like an only child, others come in a chain of siblings. In the end, I negotiate with them to fit into a single family that is a collection of poems for me. Sometimes, I am intentional about the collection I am working on—with the theme directed by a lead poem that gradually beckons on related poems to join. At other times, stand-alone poems coalesce like voices in the rainbow. an interview with open book I negotiate with a poem that just isn’t working. It’s like a stubborn child in the middle of a journey. You try not to leave them behind or use force but instead stretch to your wits end and turn on your best charm to get them to cooperate. Sometimes, I leave a poem that just isn’t working temporarily and return to it when there is a burst of afflatus or spark of idea or words from other sources to complete the poem. At other times, the poem is like an Ogbanje child that refuses to be born to stay. And I just let them be! External links Category:Living people Category:Nigerian writers