Description

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Niyi Osundare's latest book of poems, Green: Sighs Of Our Ailing Planet, is a critical pastoral of poems concerning the environment around the world--A poet of renown who has travelled and given performances in many parts of the world, he has felt and tried to put into words what he has felt in what he has seen-from the Amazon to the deserts of North Africa to his home country of Nigeria. For him it was the nature speaking to him and through him, pleading and imploring...but still beautiful? Lushness of destruction, transmuted from a nature endangered....an accessible plea from nature through Osundare's words. A book relevant and hopeful for people to stop and reflect on the endangered beauty of all of nature.

In the words of Niyi Osundare:

Of all my 20-something books of poetry, none has confronted me with a more challenging combination of urgency of content and complexity of execution than this new one. I daresay the existential imperative of its content has been responsible for the pain that came with its composition and the uneasy relief I now feel upon its completion. There is something deeply spiritual, almost religious, about the mission and the message of the poems, and the many ways they have turned out to be denizens of that vital interface between the ecological and the cosmic...

About the Author

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Widely regarded as one of Africa's most renowned poets, Niyi Osundare has authored over 18 books books of poetry, two books of selected poems, and is widely and regularly published in over 70 journals and magazines across the world. In addition his publications include four plays, a book of essays, and numerous monographs and articles on literature, language, culture, and society. Osundare has received many prizes and awards, including the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize, the Cadbury/ANA Prize (Twice), The Commonwealth poetry Prize, The Noma Award (Africa's most prestigious book award), the Tchicaya U Tam 'si Award for African poetry (Africa's highest poetry award), and many others. In 2004 his book of poems, The Eye of the Earth, was selected as One of Nigeria's Best 25 Books of the 20th Century. His widely anthologized poem, 'I Sing of Change' has been displayed for many weeks on the London Underground and subsequently displayed in over 2000 other spaces around the world. In 2014 he was admitted to the Nigerian National Order of Merit, Nigeria's highest recognition for distinguished academic and creative achievement. In 2015 the Niyi Osundare International Poetry Festival was inaugurated as an annual festival of poetry readings/performances, conferences, literary/cultural outreach, and mentoring. He is currently Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English at the University of New Orleans, and Visiting Professor at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.