The generational debate in Nigerian poetry has been shaped by the interventions of such anthologies as Voices from the Fringes (1988), edited by Harry Garuba, Poets in their Youth (1988), edited Uche Nduka and Ositadinma Ike, Gems Out of Africa: A Wake Anthology of 100 Nigerian Poets (1998), edited by Eddie Ayo-Ojo, Obafemi Obadare and Mac Amarere, and Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Nigerian Writing (2006) edited by Nduka Otiono and Odoh Diego Okenyodo. Featuring the Governor General's award-winning Nigerian-Canadian poet, Tolu Oloruntoba, and other notable poets resident in Canadian, Unbound is such an agenda-setting anthology. But more importantly, it is the first anthology to zoom into the works of the emerging generation of Nigerian poets born in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. The anthology showcases some of the most brilliant as well as struggling members of the new generation of Nigerian poets under the age of forty, most of whom launched their writing careers on social media.

Nduka Otiono is an Associate Professor of African Studies and English at Carleton University in Ottawa. Formerly a journalist and General Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors, his publications include two poetry books and a collection of short stories, The Night Hides with a Knife, winner of the ANA/Spectrum Prize for fiction.

Nduka Otiono's profile page

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