ANA publishes poetry in honour of Ikeogu Oke

The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has published a poetry collection in honour of award-winning poet, Ikeogu Oke. The collection, edited by ANA president Denja Abdullahi and Ofonime Inyang, is made up of fifty-one poems. It includes poems such as ‘Homecoming and Homegoing’ by Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, ‘Ode to an Operatic Poet’ by Blessing Omeiza Ojo, […]

The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has published a poetry collection in honour of award-winning poet, Ikeogu Oke.

The collection, edited by ANA president Denja Abdullahi and Ofonime Inyang, is made up of fifty-one poems. It includes poems such as ‘Homecoming and Homegoing’ by Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, ‘Ode to an Operatic Poet’ by Blessing Omeiza Ojo, ‘Dance of the poet’ by Augustine Ogechukwu Nwulia, and so on.

In the introduction, the editors wrote in part: “A jolly good fellow, humanist and unapologetic defender of African culture,” and went on to say that “Ikeogu Oke brought a unique finesse to the art of writing, specially in poetry, lacing his lines with music and suiting the shythm and tempo of words to its operatic foundations.”

Oke was the 2017 winner of the Nigerian Prize for literature sponsored by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) for his poetry collection, ‘The Heresiad’. He died at the age of 51 on November 25 2018.