Wole Soyinka
Playwright, Poet, Novelist, and Essayist
Nobel Laureate for Literature 1986, Wole Soyinka has published more than 40 works, and is active in various international artistic and human rights organisations. His works cover various literary genres, from poetry through drama and prose fiction to essays, largely in exploration of the human condition under the binary of power and freedom. His two-volume essay compilation Of Power and Freedom, published March 2023, captures a near half-century of his reflections on that, and allied themes, across cultures, politics and histories.
He is Professor Emeritus in Comparative Literature, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; Honorary Life Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, UK; and Overseas Hutchins Fellow at Harvard University, US. He currently teaches as Arts and Humanities Professor at New York University, Abu Dhabi.
Soyinka’s novel Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth was included in The New York Times list of 100 notable books of 2021.
