Name: Samuel Kọláwọlé - The Road to the Salt Sea
Start: 2024-09-30T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2024-09-30T20:00:00-05:00
Location: 15 S Dubuque St, Iowa City, IA, United States, Iowa 52240

$Samuel K\u1ecdl\u00e1w\u1ecdl\u00e9 - The Road to the Salt Sea$

IWP 2015 resident Samuel Kọláwọlé will read from The Road to the Salt Sea. "In his fine debut novel, The Road to the Salt Sea, Samuel Kọláwọlé gifts us the story of Able God, a conflicted but determined young Nigerian man who makes the dangerous journey from West Africa to Libya, where he crosses the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean into Europe. In bringing to life Able God’s story, Kọláwọlé shows us why African lives matter and shows us that the continent teems with millions of Able Gods, people full of promise and potential who can help build a better world." — Jeffery Renard Allen
Samuel Kọláwọlé was born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria. His work has appeared in AGNI, Georgia Review, The Hopkins Review, Gulf Coast, Washington Square Review, Harvard Review, and Image Journal. He has received numerous residencies and fellowships, and has been a finalist for the Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize, shortlisted for UK's The First Novel Prize, and won an Editor-Writer Mentorship from the Word. He studied at the University of Ibadan and holds a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing with distinction from Rhodes University, South Africa; is graduate of the MFA in Writing and Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts; and earned his PhD in English and Creative Writing from Georgia State University. He has taught creative writing in Africa, Sweden, and the United States, and currently teaches fiction writing as an Assistant Professor of English and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania.