Oyindamola Shoola’s New Poetry Collection Sees Everyday Drama as a Literary Commodity
Oyindamola grew up around artfully decorated houses with artwork on the walls, figurines on tables, and life-sized sculptures in the compound. She became enchanted with language from listening to her Ijebu grandmother tell stories about family, friends, and neighbors alike. Her mother’s timely sarcasm, as expected of African mothers, also created a deep sense of humor in Oyindamola.
She only began to take literature and art seriously in senior high school. Grade 10 (SS1) was Oyindamola’s first introduction to writing poetry. Before now, she steered clear of books because of their punishable sizes and complex profundity. After reluctantly picking up Jeri Angel Knox’s I Must Share that My Brother May Live, she marveled at its engaging language and astonishing simplicity.
Yet, Oyindamola’s first encounter with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies was the exact opposite. She agonized at the experience of reading it due to her limitations of the author’s British imagination. Noticing her innate love for books, her literature teacher worked patiently to develop her poetical abilities. They spent long hours in the office exchanging poems and brutally criticizing each other’s work.
When it was time to go to university, Oyindamola faced the inevitable choice of selecting a reputable course approved by family members and adult advisors. She would later agree to study Psychology at Bronx Community College, as opposed to the Creative Writing degree she actually wanted. According to Shoola, “I stubbornly was going to become a writer regardless of what anyone advised, even if it were a broke and jobless one.”
While pursuing her bachelor’s degree, she interned at several trade and academic publishing companies, including Elsevier, Simon and Schuster at 37Ink, and Hachette Book Group. She also served as a student co-editor for the New York University SPS Dovetail Magazine (Spring 2019).
Oyindamola has worked in the higher education sector for over 6 years. Using her story-telling and creative writing skills, she has helped students secure up to $1.5 million in scholarships. She is the Editor and Programs Director at Poetry Journal, and the co-founder of Sprinng—a nonprofit organization that has provided mentorship to over 330 African writers since 2018.
Her fiction, creative nonfiction, op-ed pieces, and poetry have been published in Brittle Paper, Black Fox, Phi Theta Kappa’s Nota Bene, Authorpedia, and Kalahari Review, among other places.
In 2017 and 2018, Oyindamola Shoola was listed as one of the Nigerian Writers Award (NWA) “100 Most Influential Nigerian Writers Under 40”. In 2024, her latest book Face Me I Face You was awarded Winner of the Kermit Moyer Prize for Craft in Lyrical Writing by the American University, Washington, DC.
Face Me I Face You is Shoola’s new collection of poems exploring the interface of identity, class, and culture. Deploying wit and humor, Oyindamola serves an acerbic cocktail of unpretentiously clear and artfully illustrated poems that unravel the daily dramatic, intertwined lives of vibrant characters who use shared housing amenities.
Within the “Face Me I Face You” living arrangement popular in low-end Nigerian urban areas, privacy is elusive, creating an abundant market for drama. And Oyindamola is one author who sees drama as a necessary literary commodity. With this collection, Shoola has written eclectic poetry that is inclusive and rooted in home, heart, and homage.
According to Su’eddie Vershima Agema, “Poetry can sometimes be too challenging or too profound to enjoy, but definitely not in Oyindamola Shoola’s Face Me I Face You. From the bustling streets to intimate domestic moments, this collection celebrates resilience, community, and the indomitable spirit in a way that will leave most readers smiling.”
As she read through the final version of Face Me I Face You, Oyindamola realized in hindsight what art has accomplished for her in the past 12 years. She finds it a privilege to have the power of specific imagination and the ability to hand it to someone else. Reading Knots by R.D. Liang allowed her to see that poetry didn’t need to be difficult to be profound.
Oyindamola Shoola’s new poetry collection, Face Me I Face You, is out in bookstores from today, August 25th, 2024. For information on how to get a copy, visit www.shoolaoyin.com.
Iruoma Chukwuemeka
Iruoma Chukwuemeka is a writer from Nigeria. Her works have appeared in Isele Magazine, Lolwe, The Weganda Review, and elsewhere. She is a finalist for the Inaugural Abebi Award in Afro-NonFiction.
