Ismail BALA is a lecturer at Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria. In addition to his many academic publications, his poetry and translations have appeared in the UK, the US, Canada, India, and South Africa, in journals such as Poetry Review, Ambit, New Coin, Okike, and A Review of International English Literature. He has also co-edited a number of anthologies of Nigerian poetry, including Pyramids: An Anthology of Poems from Northern Nigeria (2008), Fireflies: An Anthology of New Nigerian Poetry (2009), and Crumbled Spell: Association of Nigerian Authors Anthology of Poetry (2010). He participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State.