Unbound

NDUKA OTIONO is an Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. He is the author and co-editor of several books of creative writing and academic research including Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text (2021). Prior to turning to academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria and General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors. His research has appeared in top-ranked journals, and his creative writing books include his recently re-issued debut, The Night Hides with a Knife, which won the ANA/Spectrum Prize for Fiction; Voices in the Rainbow (poems), which received Honorable Mention for the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize; and Love in a Time of Nightmares, for which he was awarded the James Patrick Folinsbee Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing. His professional honors include a Capital Educator's Award for Excellence in Teaching; Carleton University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Early Career Award for Research Excellence; Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship; and Black History Ottawa Community Builder Award. Otiono is President of the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) and a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Authors Association. DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono, is his most recent book published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

DARLINGTON CHIBUEZE ANUONYE is a literary conversationist and writer. He is curator of Selfies and Signatures: An Afro Anthology of Short Stories, co-editor of Daybreak: An Anthology of Nigerian Short Fiction and editor of the international anthology of writings, Through the Eye of a Needle: Art in the Time of Coronavirus. Anuonye was longlisted for the 2018 BabishaiNiwe African Poetry Award and shortlisted in 2016 by the Ibadan Poetry Foundation for its inaugural residency. His writings have appeared in World Literature Today, Brittle Paper, Black Boy Review, Eunoia Review, The Shallow Tales Review, and elsewhere. He is the nonfiction editor of Ngiga Magazine.