The 2019 Niyi Osundare International Poetry Festival is scheduled for July 15-17 at the University of Calabar in Nigeria. The festival, in its fifth year, was created in honor of , a 麻豆视频app下载 English professor and one of Nigeria鈥檚 most acclaimed poets.
The festival features poetry readings, music, scholarly conferences, literary and cultural outreach, theatre performances, dance and drumming. Retired Harvard University professor Biodum Jeyifo will deliver the keynote address entitled 鈥淧opular Poetry and the Search for Development in the Modern State.鈥
Osundare is the author of 18 books of poetry, including 鈥淪ongs from the Marketplace,鈥 鈥淰illage Voices,鈥 鈥淲aiting Laughter鈥檚,鈥 鈥淭ender Moments鈥 and 鈥淐ity without People: The Katrina Poems.鈥 He is the 2014 recipient of the Nigerian National Order of Merit Awards, the nation鈥檚 most prestigious prize in science, medicine, engineering and the humanities.
He has also written four plays, a book of essays and numerous monographs and articles on literature, language, culture and society.
Osundare鈥檚 areas of specialization are African literature, literature of the African diaspora, literary stylistics, sociolinguistics and creative writing.
