Nduka Otiono

Nduka Otiono is a writer, Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Canada. Prior to a career in academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria, General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA, and a founding member of the board of the Nigeria Prize for Literature as well as of UNESCO’s National Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage for Nigeria.  He is the author and co-editor of twelve books of creative writing and academic research which include Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021) and Polyvocal Bob Dylan: Music, Performance, Literature (2019). His research has appeared in top-ranked academic journals and his monograph on Street Stories in Africa is on contract with McGill-Queens University Press. His professional honors include a Capital Educator’s Award for Excellence in Teaching; Carleton University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Research Excellence Award; Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Early Career Award for Research Excellence; Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship (twice); and 2018 Black History Ottawa Community Builder Award.  His creative writing works include The Night Hides with a Knife (short stories), which won the ANA/Spectrum Prize; Voices in the Rainbow (Poems), a finalist for the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize; Love in a Time of Nightmares (Poems), and most recently, DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono, which won the African Literature Association Book of the Year Award for Creative Writing (2023) and was a finalist for the Archibald Lampman Award for poetry. He has co-edited three celebrated anthologies of creative writing, including most recently, Unbound: An Anthology of New Nigerian Poets Under 40 (2024).  A former President of the Canadian Association of African Studies and A Fellow of the William Joiner Centre for War and Social Consequences, University of Massachusetts, Boston Otiono is currently President of Canada’s Arc Poetry Society and member of the board of the Canadian Authors Association (CAA). In 2022, he was shortlisted for the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards sponsored by Western Union and his scholarly and creative oeuvre have been celebrated in a new multi-author scholarly volume, Critical Perspectives on Nduka Otiono (2024).

Research interests:

Dr. Otiono’s interdisciplinary research focuses on popular urban narratives in postcolonial Africa, and how they travel across multiple popular cultural platforms such as the news media, film, popular music, and social media. Beyond the cultural relevance of such little genres of everyday life also known as rumours, urban myths or legends, Otiono explores their political relevance and incarnation as “street stories” and how everyday people speak to power through such informal channels. His research draws from his background as a journalist and cultural activist in Nigeria. His research interests span Cultural Studies; Oral Performance and Literature in Africa; Postcolonial Studies; Media and Communication Studies; Globalization and Popular Culture.