Aiyejina, Funso 1949–

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Aiyejina, Funso 1949–

PERSONAL:

Born January 1, 1949, in Ososo, Nigeria; son of Okogbe (a farmer) and Asetu (a homemaker and farmer) Aiyejina; married Lynda Quamina (a librarian); children: Abuenameh Ifedapo, Ararimeh Ifedayo. Education: University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife), B.A., 1974; Acadia University, M.A., 1976; University of the West Indies, Ph.D., 1981.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Five Rivers, Arouca, Trinidad. Office—Department of Liberal Arts, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, member of humanities and education faculty, 1990—. Lincoln University, Fulbright scholar in residence, 1995-96. Trinidad and Tobago Review, assistant editor, 1996-2000, literary editor, 2000-02; Cropper Foundation Creative Writing Workshop, committee member and cofacilitator, 2003—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Poetry Prize, Association of Nigerian Authors, 1989, for A Letter to Lynda and Other Poems; Commonwealth Writers Prize for the African region, 2000, for The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories.

WRITINGS:

A Letter to Lynda and Other Poems, Saros International Publishers (Port Harcourt, Nigeria), 1988, Mallory International (Aylesbeare, Devon, England), 2006.

The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories, TSAR (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

Self-portraits: Interviews with Ten West Indian Writers and Two Critics, School of Continuing Studies, University of the West Indies (St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago), 2003.

(Editor) Growing in the Dark (essays), Lexicon (San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago), 2003.

I, the Supreme and Other Poems, Kraft Books (Ibadan, Nigeria), 2004.

(Coeditor) Caribbean Literature in a Global Context, Lexicon (San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago), 2006.

Also author of the play The Character Who Walked out on His Author, performed in Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, and Jamaica. Work represented in anthologies. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Okike, Crab Orchard Review, and Toronto Review. Contributing editor, Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal, 2005—.

ADAPTATIONS:

Aiyejina's works have been adapted for broadcast on various media programs in Nigeria, Canada, the Netherlands, and England.

SIDELIGHTS:

Funso Aiyejina is a Nigerian-born poet and short story writer. His first work, a poetry collection titled A Letter to Lynda and Other Poems, was published in 1988, but it was his 1999 collection of short stories, The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories, that brought the author international recognition. The collection won the African region Commonwealth Literature Prize for a first book of fiction soon after its publication. Aiyejina lives in Trinidad.

The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories is a collection of ten short stories set in a fictitious Nigerian area called Akoda. The stories, though written with a humorous touch, explore the often tragic circumstances of life in Akoda, set against the backdrop of a military dictatorship. Lakshmi Subramanayam in the Hindustan Times found that The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories, "though written in a deceptively simple style emerges as a perceptive, ironic unveiling of oppression and corruption, balancing realism with optimism." Tanure Ojaide in World Literature Today noted that, despite this being Aiyejina's first collection, The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories "displays maturity of thematic exploration, experienced craftsmanship, and compelling narrative techniques." Ojaide concluded that the stories in The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories are "a major contribution to the African short story."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Book Review, June, 2000, Amrita Bhalla, interview with Funso Aiyejina, pp. 19-20.

Trinidad and Tobago Review, March, 2000, "Review Editor Wins Commonwealth First Book Award," pp. 1, 10; March, 2001, Funso Aiyejina, "Location of the Narrating Self," pp. 33, 35.

World Literature Today, summer, 2000, Tanure Ojaide, review of The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories, p. 572.