Obari gomba biography of martin

Obari Gomba (PhD) teaches Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, and is an Honorary Fellow in Writing of the University of Iowa (USA).

Writer after writer committed to the project in their own speeches and for once I assumed that we could pull our materials together in a few days. Beyond teaching in the classroom, he also offered service as a moderator for Christopher Okigbo Foundation/Conference; as a facilitator/resource person to the International Writing Program’s MOOC; as a panelist for Iowa Book Festival; as the LOC Chairman of the 3rd International Conference on Tanure Ojaide; as the Festival Coordinator of the Gabriel Okara Literary Festival; as a moderator at Lagos International Poetry Festival; as a  moderator at Lagos Book and Art Festival;  as a writing workshop facilitator for Port Harcourt UNESCO World Book Capital, Port Harcourt Book Festival, and Niger Delta Creative Writers’ Workshop; as a judge for Port Harcourt Carnival and Bayelsa State ANA; as a book reviewer and editor for Hornbill House of Arts;   and as a resource person on advocacy to the Ministry of Economic Planning of Delta State in conjunction with ODA/UNDP.

I must have sounded very positive when I discussed the issue with the amiable professor and IWP’s house editor, Nataša Ďurovičová.

We needed Nataša to be our editor; we were unanimous in our choice of Nataša. There is a chapter on his writing in Masterpieces of African Literature; and his works have been reviewed/mentioned in 234 Next, The Guardian, The Guardian Life, This Day, The Sun, National Life, Punch, Nigerian Tribune, The Nation, Ago, etc.

We also knew that we would count on the good will of the IWP administration to see it through.

After I raised the subject during my introductory speech in Shambaugh House on 21 August, Ruel Johnson (from Guyana) had joked that I was a pre-emptive plagiarist of his idea: meaning that he had also thought about the idea.

His poems were performed by the Portland Stage Company in Maine USA in 2016.

His poems were performed by the Portland Stage Company in Maine USA in 2016. He is a recipient of Rivers ANA Distinguished Writer Award, Halogen Award for Poetry, and Kangaroo Poetry Festival Poet of 2018. He is a two-time winner of both the Best Literary Artiste Award and the First Prize for Drama of the English Association of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

As we arrived in Iowa City on the night of 20 August, we decided to soothe our jetlag with some beer. Andy Axel was a kind guide: he led Christine, koko thett (from Myanmar) and I to George’s, a writerly pub in the city. He has read his poems in the United States at Shambaugh House (University of Iowa), Dubuque Museum of Arts, Oaknell Retirement Centre, and Kirkwood.

It was in George’s that Christine and I discussed the prospect of ‘a legacy project.’ We knew it would have to be a volunteer project, driven in-house amongst the residents. His other writings have also appeared in Matatu, African Review, Africa Oil+Gas Report, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, Oja, Third Text, Jeltan, ANA Review, Culture Digest, Crucible, Working Papers, The Muse, Mgbakoigba, ,New Age, Lagos Review of Books and Society, Thisday, The News, etc.

His poetry has been published in international journals such as Prosopisia, Sentinel, Maple Tree Literary Supplement and Eleven Eleven (which listed his ‘Gun Policy’ in the 20 Best of the Net for 2016). He is a recipient of Rivers ANA Distinguished Writer Award, Kangaroo Poetry Festival Poet of 2018, and a two-time winner of both the Best Literary Artiste Award and the First Prize for Drama of the English Association of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

But we lost momentum too soon.