Villa Aurora Grant Recipients | 1996

Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep

Akinwumi Adesokan | Feuchtwanger Fellow

Akinwumi Adesokan © Villa Aurora
Akinwumi Adesokan © Villa Aurora
1967
born in Ibadan (Nigeria)
1986 – 1990
University of Ibadan
1990
Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts)
1990 – 1992
Correspondent (The Guardian)
1992 – 1994
Journalist (The News)
1994 – 1995
Head of Department (The News)
1995 – 1996
Deputy Publisher (Today’s News Today)
1996 – 1997
Correspondent (The Post Express)

Akinwumi Adesokan lives in Bloomington where he has been assistant professor of comparative literature at Indiana University since 2005. He studied at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he received his PhD in English studies.

His first job as a journalist was at The Guardian (Lagos) and the once forbidden news magazine Tempo, for which he wrote a weekly literary column. He is co-editor of Glendora Review, a journal based in Lagos.

Still in manuscript form, Akinwumi Adesokan’s first novel, Roots in the Sky, won the Association of Nigerian Authors Fiction Prize for Literature. He received the PEN Freedom-to-Write Award in 1998 and the Hellman/Hammett Award for his commitment to free expression from Human Rights Watch in 1999. His scholarly work encompasses numerous articles on politics and aesthetics in Nigerian video films, as well as reviews on a variety of topics.

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