Search Results - Soyinka, Wole

Wole Soyinka

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian author, best known as a playwright and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty-five plays and five memoirs. He also wrote two translated works and many articles and short stories for many newspapers and periodicals. He is widely regarded as one of Africa's greatest writers and one of the world's most important dramatists. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence".

Born into an Anglican Yoruba family in Aké, Abeokuta, Soyinka had a preparatory education at Government College, Ibadan and proceeded to the University College Ibadan. During his education, he co-founded the Pyrate Confraternity. Soyinka left Nigeria for England to study at the University of Leeds. During that period, he was the editor of the university's magazine, ''The Eagle'', before becoming a full-time author in the 1950s. In the UK, he started writing short stories and making records for the BBC Lecture series. He wrote many plays which were performed on radios and in theatres in Nigeria and the UK, especially the Royal Court Theatre.

Since 1 September 2022, Soyinka has held the position of Arts Professor of Theatre at New York University Abu Dhabi.

He has been married to his third wife Folake Doherty since 1989.

Many of Soyinka's novels and plays are set in Nigeria, reflecting the country’s history, culture, and political struggles. Alongside these works, he produced a wide range of satirical writings that reached a broad audience and enjoyed considerable popularity. He is also an accomplished poet, with numerous individual poems and several published collections to his name. He achieved successes with his plays including ''The Swamp Dwellers'' (1958), ''The Lion and the Jewel'' (1959), and ''The Invention'', which was one of his early plays to be produced at the Royal Court Theatre. Soyinka wrote a number of other works, including ''The Interpreters'' (1965), ''Season of Anomy'' (1973), ''Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth'', and ''Harmattan Haze on an African Spring''. In July 2024, Bola Tinubu renamed the National Arts Theatre after Soyinka during his 90th birthday. Provided by Wikipedia