Nigerian poet, Romeo Oriogun has been announced as one of the winners of Nebraska’s 2024 Book Awards for his acclaimed poetry collection The Gathering of Bastards which was recognized in the Poetry category.
On publication, the University of Nebraska Press said:
“The Gathering of Bastards chronicles the movement of migrants as they navigate borders both internal and external. At the heart of these poems of vulnerability and sharp intelligence, the poet himself is the perpetual migrant embarked on forced journeys that take him across nations in West and North Africa, through Europe, and through American cities as he navigates the challenges of living through terror and loss and wrestles with the meaning of home”.
The Nebraska Book Awards program, sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB), recognizes and honours books that are written by Nebraska authors, published by Nebraska publishers, set in Nebraska, or concerning Nebraska. The Nebraska Library Commission, in partnership with the National Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, facilitates the awards, underscoring the state’s commitment to fostering a vibrant literary community.
Oluwasegun Romeo Oriogun is a Nigerian poet and essayist. He is the author of The Gathering of Bastards (2023) and Sacrament of Bodies (2020), as well as three chapbooks. He won the 2017 Brunel University African Poetry Prize and the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Literature for his collection Nomad, and was a finalist for the Future Awards African Prize for Literature and the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry.
Romeo has received fellowships and support from Ebedi International Writers Residency, Harvard University‘s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Oregon Institute for Creative Research, and the IIE- Artist Protection Fund. His poems have appeared in Poetry Foundation, Harvard Review, American Poetry Review, Narrative Magazine and elsewhere. Romeo received his MFA in creative writing from the Iowa Writers Workshop in 2020.
The awards will be presented at the Nebraska Celebration of Books (NCOB) festival, scheduled for October 12th at the UNL City Campus Union. The event will feature readings from the winning authors, including Oriogun, alongside other celebrated writers and illustrators whose works were published in 2023.
For more information on the award and its winners, click here.
Congratulations Oriogun!
Bakare Oluwatobiloba
I write to educate, motivate and define history with literature. Just being me!
