Wole Soyinka

Playwright, Poet, Novelist, and Essayist. Nobel Laureate for Literature 1986, Wole Soyinka has published more than forty works, and remains active on various international artistic and Human Rights organizations. A Yoruba, he was born and educated in Nigeria, and in the United Kingdom. Soyinka has held several university positions round the world. He is Professor Emeritus in Comparative Literature, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, Honorary Life Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, UK, and Overseas Hutchins Fellow at Harvard University, US. He currently teaches as Arts and Humanities Professor at New York University, Abu Dhabi, Wole Soyinka is essentially a playwright, but his works cover various literary genres – from poetry, though drama and prose fiction to essays, largely in exploration of the human condition under the binary of power and freedom. His two-volume essay compilation captures a near half century of his reflections on that, and allied themes, across cultures, politics and histories, published in March 2023, titled OF POWER AND FREEDOM. Soyinka’s return to the medium of prose fiction - CHRONICLES FROM THE LAND OF THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE ON EARTH. - was included in the 100 outstanding fictional works of 2021. And has been translated into several languages.