Three writers for Sept/Oct Ebedi residency

Ehizogie Iyeoma, Ikechukwu Nwaogu and Servio Gbadamosi are the three Nigerian writers who just arrived in Iseyin, Oyo State for the six-week September to October 2016 edition of the Ebedi International Residency Programme.

Ehizogie Iyeoman, from Edo State, has been described as a talented, young and energetic poet with the mastery of language and imagery and a unique style of his own.

He has perfectly used his poetry, most of which have been published online, as a mirror for the society. He has acquired, through his debut, Flames Of Forest, an admirable amount of critical acclaims.

Ehizogie’s poetry, published and appreciated globally, promises to re-invent Africa through a combination of both traditional and contemporary styles, devices and languages.

Apart from being a poet, Ehizogie’s humane qualities can be attested to by the responsibility he recently took to feed children, provide literacy to orphans in Northern Nigeria and IDP camps.  He hopes to use his time in the residency to further enhance his innate and creative qualities and enable him to finish his poetry collection — A Spring Of Endless Songs.

The second writer, Ikechukwu Nwaogu, from Abia State, is a writer and playwright who occasionally dabbles into poetry. His short fiction pieces have appeared on several websites.

Nwaogu hopes to use his time in Ebedi to enable him put in a significant amount of work on his forthcoming collection of short stories, and also to properly set ideas down for a possible novel.

The third writer, Servio Gbadamosi is an Ibadan-based culture and development practitioner whose debut poetry collection, A Tributary in Servitude won the 2015 Association of Nigerian Authors’ Prize for Poetry.

His works have also appeared online as well as in journals, newspapers and anthologies like Crossroads: Anthology of Poems in Honour of Christopher Okigbo; Fela’s Re-arrangement: A Collage of the Poetic Biography of Nigeria’s Folkhero of Afrobeat Music and The Sky is Our Earth: Anthology of Fifty Young Nigerian Poets.

He hopes to use the opportunity of his residency ‘to research, reflect and continue work on a new collection of poems titled, From Northwind’.

All the three writers will also take part in the mentorship of secondary school students in Iseyin and environs in the area of creative writing, drama and public speaking.

Now in its sixth year of operation, the Ebedi residency is a private initiative for writers to complete their creative works in an enabling environment at no cost.

The residency, which has hosted about 75 writers from countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroun, Ghana and Ivory Coast since its inception, has also produced several award winning writers.

The latest of such writers is Elnathan John, whose book, Born On A Tuesday, shortlisted for the 2016 NLNG prize was completed at the Ebedi residency.