Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian poet and author famously known for her debut novel “The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.” Lola began her career as a poet and short-story writer, with some of her work appearing in the Post Express in 1995. In 1998, she released her first volume of poetry, “So All The Time I Was Sitting in An Egg,” and in 2002, she released her second volume of poetry titled “Riverbird.”
Although Lola initially wrote her first and second novels, the second, “Harlot,” remains unpublished to this day; her third novel, which is now being adapted by Mo Abudu into a Nollywood film, was her first published work. The novel first gained prominence when it was adapted as a stage play by Rotimi Babatunde. Lola has written for numerous newspapers, including The Scotsman, The Guardian, and The Times, on issues such as racism, Nigeria’s tradition of polygamous marriage, the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, and the elections of now-former President Muhammadu Buhari.
She is also the founder and director of the Book Buzz Foundation, a non-governmental organisation established in 2012 to promote arts and culture within local and global spaces, and is a co-founder of “Infusion,” a popular monthly gathering for music, art, and culture in Abuja, Nigeria. She also runs the publishing imprint and bookshop Ouida Books in Nigeria and is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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