Check out a new review by Isaac Attah Ogezi. He has reviewed a new anthology of poetry by contemporary Nigerian poets. Isaac Attah Ogezi is a legal practitioner, poet, playwright, short story writer and literary essayist. He is published in Drumvoices Revue, USA (2006), Prosopisia, Vol. 1, No. 1, India (2008), www.fictionontheweb.com, www.authorme.com, www.africanwriter.com and several other national and international anthologies, online journals and dailies. His adaptation of Soyinka’s The Interpreters under the title: The Misfits won a 3rd prize position at the 2006 ANA International Colloquium to mark the 20th Anniversary of Soyinka’s Nobel Prize. Also, his adaptation of Achebe’sArrow of God under the title: Ezeulu came first at the 2008 ANA International Colloquium to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Other awards include ANA/Esiaba Irobi Prize for Drama 2010, 2011 and 2013, AWF/Zulu Sofola Award for Drama 2009, CHD/Ford Foundation Award for Creative Writing 2010, amongst others. His published plays include: Waiting for Savon (2009),Casket of Her Dreams (2010), Under a Darkling Sky (2012) and Embrace of a Leper (2013). A fellow of UNPFA/Nollywood Scriptwriting and British Council Radiophonics programmes, he currently practises law at Keffi, Nasarawa State. In 2014 he was nominated for both the Soyinka Prize for African Literature and NLNG Prize for Nigerian Literature for his Under a Darkling Sky.

Ogezi writes:

With an anthology that prides itself of being the best contemporary Nigerian poetry, one does expect the very best of each of the individual poets in the work. That is, however, not the case here. No doubt the anthology represents the works of most of the best contemporary Nigerian poets writing today but whether their works anthologized here are their best is a question that poetry scholars will have to engage in an exegesis. Credit must be given to the editor, Unoma Azuah, for the success of this impressive anthology. She herself is an important poet. Perhaps, it appears that it takes only a poet to recognize good poetry like the seminal Soyinka-edited Poems of Black Africa.  Read the full review.