About
Samuel Kọ́láwọlé was born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria. He is the author of a new, critically acclaimed novel, The Road to the Salt Sea.
His work has appeared in AGNI, New England Review, Georgia Review, The Hopkins Review, Gulf Coast, Washington Square Review, Harvard Review, Image Journal, and other literary publications.
He has received numerous residencies and fellowships, and has been a finalist for the Graywolf Press Africa Prize, shortlisted for UK’s The First Novel Prize, and won an Editor-Writer Mentorship Program for Diverse Writers.
He studied at the University of Ibadan and holds a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing with distinction from Rhodes University, South Africa; is graduate of the MFA in Writing and Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts; and earned his PhD in English and Creative Writing from Georgia State University.
He has taught creative writing in Africa, Sweden, and the United States, and currently teaches fiction writing as an Assistant Professor of English and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University.
press kit
FELLOWSHIPS, RESIDENCIES AND SCHOLARSHIP/AWARDS
Toyin Fálọlá Prize, Shortlist, 2020
The Paul Bowles Graduate Student Fellowship in Fiction Writing, 2020
Finalist, Anisfield-Wolf Fellowship in Writing & Publishing, 2020
Shortlist, The First Novel Prize, United Kingdom, 2019
Carson McCullers Center’s Marguerite and Lamar Smith Writing Fellowship, Columbus State University, Georgia, 2019.
Editor-Writer Mentorship Program for Diverse Writers, Denver, Colorado 2019
Finalist, Graywolf Press Africa Prize, Graywolf Press, April 2018
Emerging Writers Scholarship, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont 2017
International Writing Program Fellowship, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 2015
Michael Alexander Scholarship, Clarion West Writers Workshop, Seattle, Washington, 2015
Wellstone Centre in the Redwoods Fellowship, Santa Cruz, California, 2015
Island Institute, Sitka, Alaska, 2015: Writer in residence
Prince Claus fund for Culture and Development, Netherlands 2014
Norman Mailer Center Fiction Fellowship, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2014
Ebedi International Writers Residency, Oyo State, Nigeria, 2012: Writer in residency