The Nigerian poet, filmmaker, and experimentalist Kányin Olorunnisola has his debut collection coming. Ará’lúèbó: The Immigrant Monologues will be published on 15 March 2026, by Acre Books, and distributed by the University of Chicago Press.
The titular Yoruba word “Ará’lúèbó” is, he said, “an endearing term for a native who has gone abroad, and/or is returning,” or simply “a person who becomes a foreigner everywhere they go.” The collection is a textured exploration of immigrant identity, voiced through different Nigerian American characters.
“This is a book that’s been four years in the making,” he said. “I am glad that I can finally share this madness with the world.”
Here is a description:
In his debut poetry collection, KÁNYIN Olorunnisola showcases the expansiveness of the immigrant experience through the form of the choreopoem, a non-Western style of poetry that incorporates elements of music and theater. The collection tells a multitude of stories through five people (Odunsi, beja, Levi, Sekina, and Ismaila), who, though fictional, represent the emotional truths of the lived experience of an African residing in the United States. As Ismaila says early on, “we r five fly kids hyphenated by time & / geography.”
Mixing Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin, and English, Ará’lúèbó: The Immigrant Monologues is a blend of linguistic influences, with debts to visual art and rap music. At the center of its expression is formal experimentation; poems are structured like movie screenplays, diary entries, flowcharts, pie charts, and dictionary entries. The book encompasses a broad span of American, African, and other world history, even as it is strongly rooted in the contemporary, with references to Lauryn Hill, Kendrick Lamar, and other Black creatives. Ultimately, the book asks who is allowed to belong and paints a portrait of what it means to be American and from elsewhere.
Now living in Boston, USA, Olorunnisola began writing in Nigeria, where he co-founded the literary development program SPRINNG (Society for the Promotion, Revitalization, and Improvement of New Nigerian Generations). His debut short film, Chiaroscuro, premiered at the 2024 Rising Tide Film Festival. He is the author of two chapbooks: In My Country We’re All Crossdressers and Shakespeares in the Ghetto. His writing appears in Al Jazeera, FIYAH, Georgia Review, and Chicago Review of Books. His work has been supported by Harvard University’s Woodberry Poetry Room, the Levitetz Leadership Program, Speculative Literature Foundation, and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). He has an MFA from the University of Alabama, where he taught creative writing and was nonfiction editor of the Black Warrior Review.
Preorder Ará’lúèbó: The Immigrant Monologues here.
