Late Night Conversation, hosted by Kristin Maffei

This week Kristin talks to Gabriel Bamgbose, a Nigerian writer, poet, and critic. He is the founder of the Ijagun Poetry Journal, a professor of literature at Tai Solarin University of Education in Nigeria and currently a Fulbright Fellow in the Africana Studies Program at New York University. As a scholar of postcolonialism and gender, Gabriel's work frequently focuses on marginalized voices and, as he calls it, the language of the common man.

He discusses this aspect of his work as well as his long journey to publication as a Nigerian poet, his view of poetry, and more.
Listen to the full episode here:

I want my poems to speak the language of the marketplace... The language of the common man, language that is accessible to everyone. I want my language to be as common as possible. But while that is common, I want the images to speak to so many things. I want the simple language imbued with beautiful images... There is poetry for everything. Poems, songs are everywhere....
GIVEAWAY: You can win a copy of Gabriel's poetry collection Something Happened After the Rain. Win by listening for Kristin's question in the episode and being one of the FIRST THREE LISTENERS to email the correct answer to kristin@latenightlibrary.org.
ABOUT OUR GUEST
GABRIEL BAMGBOSE, a Fulbright Scholar at NYU, is the founding editor of Ijagun Poetry Journal and the author of Something Happened After the Rain.