EMPLOYMENT
Graduate Instructor, English Department, University of Utah, 2018 – Present
Founder/CEO, Iskanchi Press, US and Canada
EDUCATION
PhD Student, English/Creative Writing, University of South Dakota (in view-2024)
MFA, Creative Writing—Fiction, University of Utah, 2021
BSC, English Literature and Creative Writing, Utah Valley University, 2018
BA, Philosophy, University of Benin, 2009
B O O K S
A Thousand Minarets (novel), in-progress
(Represented by Seren Adams of United Agents)
A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home
(Anthology), Catapult, February 2020
Selves: An Afro Anthology of Creative Nonfiction, April 2018
Chibok Girl (Children’s book), Grower Literature, May 2015
Christmas in Nigeria: Short Stories from around the Nation, (Anthology), Paressia, 2013
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
FICTION
Litro Magazine (forthcoming): “Chanting After Egrets”
Mount Island Literary Journal (forthcoming): “The Way They Were”
Catapult: (Summer 2018): “Sky Held Up by a Thousand Minarets”
Blue Monday Review Volume 2, Issue 2, (Spring 2015): “My Cousin the Infidel”
NONFICTION
Catapult (Summer 2017): “This Hell Not Mine: On Moving from Nigeria to America”
The Review (Spring 2017): “America: All the lights we do not see”
INTERVIEWS
Electric Literature (2019): “Writing is Always A Political Act” ~Interview of Helon Habila
The Millions (2019): “A Novel 19 Years in the Making”~ Interview of Namwali Serpell
Electric Literature (2019): “A Nigerian American Strives to be A ‘Particular kind of Black Man” Interview of Tope Folarin
Electric Literature (2019): “Is Life Better in the West? ~Interview of Jennifer Makumbi
UNIVERSITY TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of Utah English Department
Contemporary Literature
Intermediate Fiction
Intermediate Writing: Academic Writing and Research
Introduction to Creative Writing
Utah Valley University, Writing Center
Writing Tutor
PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE
Founder/CEO, Iskanchi Press ~ Summer 2020 (Publishers of African books in the US and
Canada)
Founding Editor, Iskanchi Magazine ~ Fall 2020 (Magazine of African experimental writing)
General Manager/ Enterprise Editor ~ Farafina Trust/Kachifo Publishers
Co-founder/Publisher, Grower Literature ~ 2015 (Children’s book publishers)
Founding Editor/Publisher, Scribblers Writing ~2014
EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE
Editor-in-Chief, Iskanchi Magazine, August 2020- present
Editor-in-Chief, Iskanchi Press, May 2020- present
Deputy-Editor, Isele Magazine, July 2020- present
Editorial staff-prose, Western Humanities Review, August 2018- 2020
Opinion Editor, UVU Review, Utah Valley University’s Student Newspaper (Fall 2017, Spring 2018)
Editorial Staff, Essais, English Department Academic Journal, Utah Valley University (Fall 2017)
Prose Editor, UVU Touchstones Literary Journal (Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018)
Enterprise Editor, Farafina Publishing Ltd, Nigeria (2015-2016)
Web-Editor, Saraba Literary Magazine (2015- 2017)
INVITED TALKS & READINGS
PEN/Faulkner AMPLIFIED, summer writing program, 2020 (Facilitator)
Writers for Migrant Justice SLC, 2019 (Featured Reader)
Utah Arts Festival, 2019, (Featured Presenter)
Working Dog, 2018, 2019, (Featured Reader)
Ake Arts and Book Festival, 2016 (Invited Guest)
SELECTED AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
Winner, Tin House Scholarship Award, 2021
Tin House Scholar, 2020
Winner, Scowcroft Fiction Prize, 2020
Finalist, American Short Fiction Prize, 2020
Dee Arts Fellowship Award, 2019
Nominee, Writing Instructor Excellence Awards, 2020
Nominee, Writing Instructor Excellence Award, 2019
Nominee, Writing Instructor Excellence Award 2018
100 most influential Nigerian writers under 40 – 2015, 2016
Ebedi International Writers Fellowship Award, 2015
TEACHING & RESEARCH INTERESTS
Supernatural Realism; Contemporary American Literature; African Literature; British Literature; Post-Colonial Literature; Literary Publishing; Narrative Theory; Palinode; Mark Twain; Roman Clefs; The Novella; Creative Writing Pedagogy.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Association of Writers and Writing Programs
The Author’s Guild Foundation
PEN/Faulkner Foundation
Community of Literary Awards and Presses
Association of Nigerian Authors
International Society for the Study of Narrative
Modern Language Association
