Obi Nwakanma Biography | Poet

Obi Nwakanma is one of the Nigerian literary awards winning troika invited by Harvard University to represent New Voices From Nigeria at a recent Africa Events Reading (the other two being Maik Nwosu and Akin Adesokan also featured on this site). Poet and journalist, he featured at the Poetry International Festival in 1995. Holder of a BA degree from the University of Jos in Nigeria, Nwakanma was a visiting scholar at one of the pre-eminent universities in Nigeria, UN at Nsukka. Formerly an Assistant Editor at the Sunday Vanguard, he is currently a visiting scholar at The Meeting School, Rindge, NH, where he teaches Literature, Creative Writing and Journalism. Author of Thirsting for Sunlight and The Roped Urn - winner, Association of Nigerian Authors Cadbury Poetry Prize in 1996 - he is at an advanced stage in the writing of The Stifled Sneeze, a biography of the late poet Christopher Okigbo who died during the Biafra war. His poems and articles have appeared in various publications and columns such as The Orbit.