Ernest Ogunyemi

Staff Writer

Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí was a staff writer at Open Country Mag. His works have recently appeared/are forthcoming in AGNI, Joyland, No Tokens, Olongo Africa, The Dark, Fiyah, Agbowó, Southern Humanities Review, Minnesota Review, McNeese Review, Down River Road, and West Trade Review. He is the curator of The Fire That Is Dreamed of: The Young African Poets Anthology.

All Works

January 4, 2022

Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo Review—What Does It Mean for a Woman to Reclaim Herself?

A mixed-race woman’s search for her father in a fictional country.

Ernest Ogunyemi

October 7, 2021

Linking Sierra Leonean Literature

Poda-Poda Stories is a digital platform for writers from Sierra Leone, whose literary scene was disrupted by a decade-long civil war and is now regenerating with great promise. “I started it to look inward and celebrate our own writing,” says editor Ngozi Cole in this interview. “What was missing was building bridges and connections.”

Ernest Ogunyemi

August 11, 2021

Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm Is an Epic West African Tale of Magic & Caste

The novel—the first in his epic fantasy trilogy, Nameless Republic, based on 15th century West African empires—has been called “rich, wild, and occasionally dizzying.”

Ernest Ogunyemi

August 5, 2021

7 Literary Magazines Accepting Submissions in August

Ernest Ogunyemi

July 27, 2021

The Booker Prize 2021 Longlist

Three Africans are in the running this year: Damon Galgut for The Promise, Nadifa Mohamed for The Fortune Men, and Karen Jennings for An Island.

Ernest Ogunyemi

July 23, 2021

Warsan Shire’s First Full-Length Poetry Collection Out in 2022

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head will arrive 11 years after her first chapbook Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth.

Ernest Ogunyemi

July 15, 2021

52 Books in 64 Years: Your Guide to Wole Soyinka’s Body of Work

“Only one universal ideology answers human cruelties, the excesses of power, bigotries, social inequalities and alienation: Literature,” wrote Africa’s first Nobel laureate in literature, who turned 87 this week.

Ernest Ogunyemi

July 10, 2021

NoViolet Bulawayo’s Second Novel, Glory, Is Inspired by the Fall of Robert Mugabe

The Zimbabwean writer’s “blockbuster novel about the chaos of revolution, presented as an uncannily recognizable anthropomorphic allegory,” will arrive nine years after her Booker Prize-shortlisted debut We Need New Names.

Ernest Ogunyemi

January 4, 2022

Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo Review—What Does It Mean for a Woman to Reclaim Herself?

A mixed-race woman’s search for her father in a fictional country.

Ernest Ogunyemi

October 7, 2021

Linking Sierra Leonean Literature

Poda-Poda Stories is a digital platform for writers from Sierra Leone, whose literary scene was disrupted by a decade-long civil war and is now regenerating with great promise. “I started it to look inward and celebrate our own writing,” says editor Ngozi Cole in this interview. “What was missing was building bridges and connections.”

Ernest Ogunyemi

August 11, 2021

Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm Is an Epic West African Tale of Magic & Caste

The novel—the first in his epic fantasy trilogy, Nameless Republic, based on 15th century West African empires—has been called “rich, wild, and occasionally dizzying.”

Ernest Ogunyemi

August 5, 2021

7 Literary Magazines Accepting Submissions in August

Ernest Ogunyemi

July 27, 2021

The Booker Prize 2021 Longlist

Three Africans are in the running this year: Damon Galgut for The Promise, Nadifa Mohamed for The Fortune Men, and Karen Jennings for An Island.

Ernest Ogunyemi

July 23, 2021

Warsan Shire’s First Full-Length Poetry Collection Out in 2022

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head will arrive 11 years after her first chapbook Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth.

Ernest Ogunyemi

July 15, 2021

52 Books in 64 Years: Your Guide to Wole Soyinka’s Body of Work

“Only one universal ideology answers human cruelties, the excesses of power, bigotries, social inequalities and alienation: Literature,” wrote Africa’s first Nobel laureate in literature, who turned 87 this week.

Ernest Ogunyemi

July 10, 2021

NoViolet Bulawayo’s Second Novel, Glory, Is Inspired by the Fall of Robert Mugabe

The Zimbabwean writer’s “blockbuster novel about the chaos of revolution, presented as an uncannily recognizable anthropomorphic allegory,” will arrive nine years after her Booker Prize-shortlisted debut We Need New Names.

Ernest Ogunyemi