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Ijeoma Umebinyuo

Biography

Ijeoma Umebinyuo is a Nigerian born artist and writer. She spent her holidays in her hometown in Eastern Nigeria where her grandfather introduced her to oral storytelling through Igbo folklore, her love for storytelling began in her indigenous Igboland. Ijeoma published her first collection of poetry, ‘Questions for Ada,’ in 2015. In 2017, she delivered a talk, ‘Dismantling The Culture of Silence,’ at TEDx CooperUnion. Umebinyuo has delivered readings at Columbia University and Colgate University. She gave her first keynote speech at the first Afrocentrism Conference organized by The University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. She was a part of a panel discussion organized by the BBC focused on Nigerian women at the University of Lagos. She was a part of a panel discussion on ‘Gender, Silence, and the Politics of writing’ organized by the Hong Kong International Poetry Festival. Her work has been translated, published and cited in various languages and publications. Appearing in literary magazines and anthologies such as The NYU Black Renaissance Noire, The Macguffin, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Stockholm Review of Literature, Antología Internacional de Poesía Feminista, Oireserío: A poetic anthology for the rivers of the five continents and An Anthology of Womanist Poems. She published two essays: ‘The Privilege of Geography’ in Missy Magazine translated to German by Charlotte Milsch and ‘Owning and Centring Our Stories’ in Agenda, an African feminist journal. In the summer of 2020, her poem ‘Poem No. 4′ was named in Vogue Magazine as one of the seven most important poems to perfectly depict the Black experience. Umebinyuo’s poem was a part of the ‘Silence — Falling Silent Loudly’ exhibition at the Japanisches Palais in Dresden, Germany. Ijeoma Umebinyuo established Aguwazi Creatives Limited in 2022 where she expands her creativity and love for art through her boutique storytelling firm. Umebinyuo centers her life around her joy, her relentless pursuit of knowledge and her loved ones. Umebinyuo is thriving somewhere and finding her joy. She prefers not to be bothered about things like free labour and unnecessary noise.

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

Nominated for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Aspen Words Literary Prize, PEN/Hemingway Award, Centre for Fiction First Novel Prize, Carnegie Medal of Excellence, The Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, Young Lions Fiction Award Finalists, 2019 Nommo Awards Shortlist, 2019 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Finalist.

Talent

Ijeoma Umebinyuo

Biography

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

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