Emmanuel Iduma (born 1989) is a
Nigerian writer and art critic. He is the author of ''A Stranger's Pose'' (2018) and ''Farad'' (2012). In 2016, ''Farad'' was republished in North America as ''The Sound of Things to Come''. He was awarded the inaugural
Irving Sandler
Irving Sandler (July 22, 1925 – June 2, 2018) was an American art critic, art historian, and educator. He provided numerous first hand accounts of American art, beginning with abstract expressionism in the 1950s. He also managed the Tanager Gal ...
Award for New Voices in Art Criticism by the
Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art, USA.
He teaches in the MFA Art Writing Program at the
School of Visual Arts, New York City.
Personal life
Iduma was born in
Akure
Akure is a city in south-western Nigeria. It is the capital and largest city of Ondo State. The city had a population of 403,000 as at the 2006 population census.
History
Pre 1914
Rock engravings dating back to the Mesolithic period, hav ...
, Nigeria, in 1989.
He is married to
Ayobami Adebayo
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (born 29 January 1988) is a Nigerian writer. Her 2017 debut novel, '' Stay With Me'', won the 9mobile Prize for Literature and the Prix Les Afriques. She was awarded The Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts and Culture ...
.
Career
Emmanuel Iduma studied law at
Obafemi Awolowo University in
Ile-Ife. He also has an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing from the
School of Visual Arts, New York City.
In 2012,
Parrésia Publishers
Parrésia, also Parrésia Publishers Ltd, is a publishing company in Nigeria founded by Azafi Omoluabi Ogosi and Richard Ali in 2012 with the aim of selling books to the Nigerian reading audience and promote the freedom of the imagination and th ...
published Iduma's first novel, ''Farad.'' It was described by
Tolu Ogunlesi
Tolu Ogunlesi (born 3 March 1982) is a Nigerian journalist, poet, photographer, fiction writer, and blogger. Ogunlesi was appointed to the role of special assistant on digital/new media by President Muhammadu Buhari on 18 February 2016. as "an impressive house of words – dream-like, haunting, elusive – standing confidently at a frontier, signalling the immense promise of an emerging generation of Nigerian novelists."
In 2017, he received an arts writing grant from the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation for a series of essays about contemporary Nigerian artists.
During the same year, Iduma co-curated the first ever Nigerian Pavilion at the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
with
Adenrele Sonariwo
Iduma's 2018 book, ''A Stranger's Pose'', was described in ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' as "part travelogue, part memoir, part poetry collection, part photo essay", with the article going on to say: "The book hums with a kind of gorgeous melancholy. ...serene compositions—both written and photographic—transport the reader with a warmth that feels rare for a travel title. In its attention to visual detail and to the ebbs and flows of human connection, ''A Stranger’s Pose'' shifts conventions in travel writing about Africa."
''A Stranger’s Pose'' was longlisted for the
Ondaatje Prize
The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...
in 2019.
Iduma's third book, ''I Am Still With You'', a memoir about the Nigerian civil war, has been acquired by
Algonquin in the US and
William Collins, an imprint of Harper Collins, in the UK. It is scheduled for publication in 2022. The book is a recipient of a Silvers Grant for Work in Progress.
Iduma currently teaches in the MFA Art Writing Program at
School of Visual Arts, New York City.
List of publications
*
* ''Farad'' (2012)
* ''Gambit: Newer African Writing'' (co-edited, with
Shaun Randol)
*''A Stranger's Pose'' (2018)
*I am still with you: A Reckoning with silence, inheritance and History (2023)
Awards and recognition
* In 2017, Iduma was awarded an arts writing grant by the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation.
* In 2018, his book, ''A Stranger's Pose,'' was longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize.
* In 2019, he was awarded the
Irving Sandler
Irving Sandler (July 22, 1925 – June 2, 2018) was an American art critic, art historian, and educator. He provided numerous first hand accounts of American art, beginning with abstract expressionism in the 1950s. He also managed the Tanager Gal ...
Award for New Voices in Art Criticism.
* In 2020, Iduma was included in ''
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
'' magazine's 40 Under 40 list.
*
Windham–Campbell Prize (2022) category of nonfiction
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iduma, Emmanuel
1989 births
Living people
Nigerian male novelists
Obafemi Awolowo University alumni
21st-century Nigerian novelists
Nigerian editors