Since I started this blog in 2009, I’ve imagined a book of travel stories, covering many of the journeys and memories I have made since I first set out of my country, and continent, in search of knowledge and adventure. Sometime last year, I completed one, a book of recollections of one particular period of my life: the three years I spent in the United States first as a Fulbright Scholar teaching Yorùbá and later as a graduate student of linguistics.

Earlier this year, the work was acquired by Wisdom’s Bottom Press, an independent publishing collective based out of Oxford in the UK. It will be released to the public in November this year, followed by a number of reading events in the UK (notably in Oxford, London, Wales, and a few other places as schedule allows).

Needless to say, I am excited for this new journey as a published author of poetry steeped in travel stories. My interest has always been in the preservation of memory, stories, and history. The background of an American experience whose value increases with nostalgia and every new story out of that changing environment is only an added complement. Over the years, many have asked me to share my experience of living in the US as a scholar or as a student, looking for some insight to help their own new journey. I have written on this blog, often, about some specifics. Yet every experience is different and unique. Still, having someone else’s as a reference point doesn’t hurt. It might actually offer a measure of comfort whenever despair shows up, as it often does.

I’ve been grateful to get blurbs for the book from some Nigerian writers whose work I respect, some of who also have some link with Edwardsville in particular or the United States (or Western environments) in general. You can read the blurbs here.

Follow the Facebook page of the book for updates about reading schedules in your area. The first of these happens at Pembroke College, Oxford, on November 7, 2018.

You can now get the book on Amazon here.