2017 NLNG Literary Prize Winner and Poet Ikeogu Oke Dies At 51
Again, the literary community is mourning the loss of another prolific writer. What is going on? Last Monday, it was Tosyn Bucknor, ,Now, it’s the highly acclaimed poet, Ikeogu Oke.
On the 24th of November, 2018, Ikeogu Oke passed away in National Hospital Abuja after a brief illness. This news is even more shocking because only a few months ago, he made the pilgrimage to Christopher Okigbo’s village in the Return to Idoto festival. You can read more about it HERE.
Before his $100,000 NLNG Prize 2017 win made him famous, he was a renowned journalist. Literary enthusiasts who have been following the biggest literature prize in Africa will remember that this poet had won the Nigeria Prize for Literature (Poetry Category) for his book, The Heresiad, a book of epic poetry.
In an interview with TheCableNG, he wrote:
“We can’t stop writing out of anger about our condition, or what we experience. The only thing is that we need to be conscious of making the product beautiful, because poetry is beautiful.”
