Nduka Otiono
Associate Professor, Director
| Department: | Institute of African Studies |
Biography
Nduka Otiono is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of African Studies.
Prior to turning to academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria and General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors. He is a founding member of the board of Nigeria Prize for Literature, as well as of UNESCO’s National Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage for Nigeria.
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); Polyvocal Bob Dylan: Music, Performance, Literature (2019).
His creative writing works include The Night Hides with a Knife (short stories), which won the ANA/Spectrum Prize; Voices in the Rainbow (poems), a finalist for the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize; Love in a Time of Nightmares (poems).
He has co-edited Wreaths for a Wayfarer (2020), Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria (2006), and We-Men: An Anthology of Men Writing on Women (1998).
His research has appeared in top-ranked academic journals, and his professional honors include a Capital Educator’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Carleton University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; Research Excellence Award; Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Early Career Award for Research Excellence; 2018 Black History Ottawa Community Builder Award and has been twice awarded the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship.
He has been the President of the Canadian Association of African Studies. In 2023, he was shortlisted for the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards sponsored by Western Union. His most recent book, DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono, won the African Literature Association Book of the Year Award for Creative Writing and was a finalist for the Archibald Lampman Award for poetry.