Ismail BALA

2010 Resident
  • Africa
  • Western Africa
  • Nigeria
English

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.

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Happening Now

  • We regret the passing, on April 11, 2024, of the distinguished Romanian author and critic Dan Cristea, who served as the editor in chief of the Luceafărul de Dimineață cultural monthly. In addition to being an alum of the 1985 Fall Residency, Cristea received his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa.

  • Our congratulations to 1986 Fall Residency writer Kwame Dawes, who has been named the new poet laureate of Jamaica.

  • Congratulations to our colleagues Jennifer Croft and Aron Aji, who are among those serving as judges for the National Book Awards this year, in their case in the category of translated literature.

  • Ranjit Hoskote’s speech at the 2024 Goa Literary Festival addresses the current situation in Gaza.

  • In NY Times, Bina Shah worries about the state of Pakistani—and American—democracy.

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