Chapbooks — Moyosore Orimoloye

Tres Preguntas

Published in 2021 by the Dirección de Literatura y Fomento a la Lectura UNAM, Tres Preguntas is Ezequiel Zaidenwerg’s translation of three young Nigerian poets — Moyosore Orimoloye, Precious Arinze and Logan February.
“Ésta no es una muestra de poesía regional. Es una feliz y afortunada reunión de obra de poetas que comparte un azar geográfico y generacional, compilada y traducida por el también poeta Ezequiel Zaidenwerg, quien nombra el volumen a partir de uno de los pomas incluidos y así siembra la curiosidad por una literatura de la que poco sabemos en esta región del mundo.
Moyosore Orimoloye (1994), Precious Arinze (1997) y Logan February (1999) "difieren tanto en sus identidades de género como en sus formas de componer y sus intereses y preocupaciones recurrentes", dice el compilador. Pero ni el origen ni la juventud so preponderantes en este libro. Sí lo es el talento que evidencia este conjunto de poemas. Presentamos tres voces potentes y consolidadas que responden y reinterpretan la tradición en lengua inglesa, se alejan de cualquier estereotipo y reaccionan a su particular mundo desde su momento. La intención provocadora y lúdica en Orimoloye, el sólido posicionamiento subyacente en los poemas de Arinze y su denuncia de la violencia machista, o el abordaje del amor y la identidad en la poesía de February son sólo algunos de los rasgos que contribuirán a despejar esas interrogantes que nos deja Zaidenwerg desde el título del volumen.”

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Love is a Plot Device — Love is a Plot Device

Published in 2019 by Sankofa Mag, Love is a Plot Device is a chapbook of poems that follows the lifespan of one great love.
“By beginning with Rilke, whose Letters to a Young Poet has acquired the status of a manifesto, Moyo Orimoloye is making several statements. First, that he identifies himself with the notion of apprenticeship, and offers this chapbook as the first fruits of that process. Second, that he takes craft seriously, and is not merely documenting naked emotion. Third, that in Rilke, who was experimental, transitional and yet intensely lyrical, a poet's poet, he has found a worthy tutor. And finally, that he has the pedigree, the daring and the commitment to guarantee that we can expect a growing corpus of majestic verse in the decades to come. Drink to that.”
— Niran Okewole, Foreword

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Praise for Love is a Plot Device

“To try to contain a concept as large as Love within words is an ambitious endeavour—a task many poets have attempted and failed at. Yet, Orimoloye's poetry creates a universe where, in place of containment, we encounter enlargement. abounds with freshness and the kind of originality found only on the lips of poets who invent language.”

— Yinka Elujoba, Writer and Art Critic

“What my friend and brother—Moyosore Orimoloye has shown us in this book, from 'Letter from a young poet' to 'eight notes to an ex-lover' is what all the great bards, singers and writers have been trying to tell us all these years- the exigent role love plays in the human experience. How love positions itself to be the most important force in our individual lives, how love modulates fluently to lust and back to love, and the emptiness we seem to feel without it. This book is the culmination of everything.”

— Boluwatife Afolabi, author of The Cartographer of Memory and Poetry Editor, Agbowo

“My concerns about Moyo's tricky thematic choice for a debut are delightfully dispelled from the first poem, , a response to Rilke that reveals the poet's keen awareness, right into a carefully written collection of love poems that are funny, meditative, and delivered in a voice entirely his own. An enjoyable read. A poet to watch.”

— Efe Paul Azino, author of For Broken Men Who Cross Often (Farafina) and founder of the Lagos International Poetry Festival

“Moyosore Orimoloye's love poems treat affection with a genuine regard for longing and language. Here is poetry that mines the mundane methodically for magic. Here is a poet to watch.”

— —Dami Àjàyí, author of Clinical Blues and A Woman's Body is a Country