Villa Aurora Grant Recipients | 1996
Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
Akinwumi Adesokan | Feuchtwanger Fellow
- 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.
