Wikipedia

Rasaq Malik

Rasaq Malik Gbolahan (born 1992) is a Nigerian poet and essayist.

Rasaq Malik
BornRasaq Malik Gbolahan
1992 (age 31–32)
Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria
LanguageEnglish, Yoruba
NationalityNigerian
Education
Genre
  • Poetry
  • Essay

With Ọ̀rẹ́dọlá Ibrahim, Malik is the co-founder of Àtẹ́lẹwọ́, the first digital journal devoted to publishing works written in the Yorùbá language.[1][2][3] He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Agbowó.

Education

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Malik earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English Language at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 2013 and 2017, respectively.[4][5]

Works

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Malik is the author of two poetry chapbooks: No Home In This Land, which was selected for a chapbook box edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani in 2018, and The Other Names of Grief, published in 2021 by Konya Shamsrumi, an African poetry press which he formed with four other Nigerian poets in November 2017.[6][7][8][9]

His poems, which often come off as dirges, threnodies, elegies and such other melancholic typologies of poetry, have attracted wide reviews on different literary platforms, including Open Country Mag, Olongo Africa, and African Writer Magazine, Qwenu! and in national dailies for example Daily Trust, TheCable Lifestyle.[10][11][12][13]

Malik's poems have appeared in many literary journals and mediums, including the African American Review, Colorado Review, the Crab Orchard Review, LitHub, the Michigan Quarterly Review, The Minnesota Review, the New Orleans Review, the Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Rattle, Verse Daily, among several others.[14][15][16][17] His essays have also been published in mediums such as Olongo Africa and Agbowó.[18][19]

Rasaq was one of 126 established and emerging African poets who contributed to Wreaths for a Wayfarer, an anthology mourning the death of Nigerian-Canadian academic and public intellectual Pius Adesanmi in a March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines plane crash.[20][21][22] He, alongside 31 other poets, also contributed to Sọ̀rọ̀sókè: An #EndSARS Anthology, edited by Nigerian writers Jumoke Verissimo and James Yéku. Published in February 2022, the collection memorialized the End SARS protests against police brutality in Nigeria.[23][24]

Malik has been profiled and or interviewed on platforms including The Shallow Tales Review, CỌ́N-SCÌÒ Magazine, Africa in Dialogue and Gainsayer.[25][26][27][28]

Malik won Honorable Mention in 2015 Best of the Net for his poem "Elegy", published in One. Rattle nominated his poems "How My Mother Spends Her Nights" and "What My Children Remember" for the Pushcart Prize in 2016 and 2019, respectively.[29] He was shortlisted for Brunel International African Poetry Prize in 2017.[30][31] He was a finalist for Sillerman First Book for African Poets in 2018.[32]

Malik regularly shares his work on his social media handles.[33]

References

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  1. ^ atelewo. "Ikọ̀". Àtẹ́lẹwọ́. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  2. ^ "Okediji, Tubosun... 40 writers unveil Àtẹ́lẹwọ́ -- anthology to preserve Yoruba culture". TheCable. 2018-01-30. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  3. ^ "Group organises first-ever Yoruba book auction on Twitter". 2021-06-06. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  4. ^ "Contributors". Prairie Schooner. 93 (1): 189–192. 2019. doi:10.1353/psg.2019.0026. ISSN 1542-426X. S2CID 239110916.
  5. ^ "Rasaq Malik". Africa Is A Country. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  6. ^ "New-Generation African Poets: Tano". World Literature Today. 2018-10-17. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  7. ^ "Konya Shamsrumi Releases Funmi Gaji and Rasaq Malik Gbolahan (RMG)". Konya Shamsrumi. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  8. ^ "Konya Shamsrumi gets new head". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 2019-11-03. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  9. ^ "5 Poets, 1 Publishing House - The Story Of Konya Shamsrumi Collective". Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  10. ^ "Rasaq Malik Gbolahan & Funmi Gaji on Their New Poetry Books from Konya Shamsrumi". Open Country Mag. 2021-03-05. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  11. ^ Ezenwa, Chinua (2021-02-27). "Of trauma, home and wars in Rasaq Malik's No Home in This Land". Journal of Postcolonial Writing and World Literatures. 2 (1).
  12. ^ "Of Grief-Poetics on Place and People: Rasak Malik's Achebesque Death Knells In No Home In This Land". African Writer. 2018-07-31. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  13. ^ "Book Review | Title: No Home in this Land – Author: Rasaq Malik | Reviewed by Umar Yogiza Jr". Qwenu!. 2020-05-24. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  14. ^ Malik, Rasaq (2022). "For Derek Walcott, and: On Nights Like This, and: New Land". African American Review. 55 (1): 87–88. doi:10.1353/afa.2022.0005. ISSN 1945-6182. S2CID 248089906.
  15. ^ Malik, Rasaq (2019). "In Dahyan, and: Country of Birth". Colorado Review. 46 (2): 131–132. doi:10.1353/col.2019.0064. ISSN 2325-730X. S2CID 199216965.
  16. ^ Malik, Rasaq (2017-05-01). "What They Remember". The Minnesota Review. 2017 (88): 14. doi:10.1215/00265667-3786803. ISSN 0026-5667. S2CID 151969459.
  17. ^ Malik, Rasaq (2019). "What Remains after My Grandmother's Death". Prairie Schooner. 93 (1): 101–102. doi:10.1353/psg.2019.0013. ISSN 1542-426X. S2CID 146108044.
  18. ^ "On Digital Obituary". Olongo Africa. 2021-09-01. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  19. ^ "Review: In Memoriam of A Poet's Homeland | Rasaq Malik Gbolahan". Agbowó. 2018-09-17. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  20. ^ "Wreaths for a Wayfarer: An Anthology in Honour of Pius Adesanmi". Daraja Press. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  21. ^ "When Wreaths are Laid for a Wayfarer | Ifésinàchi Nwádiké | Review". brittlepaper.com. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  22. ^ "Nigerian Literature: Four Deaths and an Elegy". Wasafiri Magazine. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  23. ^ "Sọ̀rọ̀sókè: An #ENDSARS Anthology Presents Powerful Protest Poetry Against Police Brutality". brittlepaper.com. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  24. ^ "#EndSARS: Poets preserve memory of 'Sorosoke' protest in new anthology". 2022-02-15. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  25. ^ "An Endless Pursuit of a Perfect World". The Shallow Tales Review. 2021-03-30. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  26. ^ admin (2021-01-08). "IN THE SPOTLIGHT: AN INTERVIEW WITH RASAQ MALIK GBOLAHAN". Words Rhymes & Rhythm. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  27. ^ africaindialogue (2017-06-23). "Brunel International African Poetry Prize Shortlists: A Dialogue With Rasaq Malik". Africa in Dialogue. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  28. ^ "A Conversation with Rasaq Malik". Gainsayer. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  29. ^ "News | Rattle: Poetry". www.rattle.com. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  30. ^ "Brunel International African Poetry Prize Awarded to Nigeria's Romeo Oriogun". www.brunel.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  31. ^ "Winners, Shortlists & Judges – The African Poetry Prize". Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  32. ^ "The 2018 Sillerman First Book Prize Awarded to Botswana's Tjawangwa Dema, for Her "The Careless Seamstress"". brittlepaper.com. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  33. ^ "Young writers expand frontiers of Nigerian literature on social media". Retrieved 2022-09-05.
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