Amatoritsero Ede

Amatoritsero Ede is a Nigerian-Canadian poet. In 1998 he won the All-Africa Christopher Okigbo Prize for Literature with his first collection of poems, Caribbean Blues; A writer's Pains. He had written under the name "Godwin Ede". He stopped bearing his 'Christian' first name as a way to protest the xenophobia and racism he noted in Germany, a 'Christian' country, and to an extent, to protest Western colonialism in general.^[1] He was a Hindu Monk with the Hare Krishna Movement, and has worked as a Book Editor with a major Nigerian trade publisher, Spectrum Books. In 1993 he won the runner-up prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors’ (ANA) Poetry Competition with the manuscript of “A Writer’s Pains”; in 1998 the ANA All Africa Christopher Okigbo Prize for Literature (endowed by Wole Soyinka, Nigerian Nobel Laureate for literature) with his first collection of poems, Collected Poems: A writer’s Pains & Caribbean Blues (Bremen, Germany: Yeti Press, 1998; Lagos: Oracle Books, 2001) and second prize in the first May Ayim Award: International Black German Literary Prize, in 2004. He also appears in the following anthologies: TOK 1: Writing the New Toronto Helen Walsh ed. (Toronto: Zephyr Press, 2006), Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Nigerian Writing Nduka Otiono & Diego Okonyedo eds. (Yenogoa, Nigeria: Treasure Books, 2006), May Ayim Award Anthology Peggy Piesche et al. eds. (Berlin, Germany: Orlanda Verlag, 2004), The Fate of Vultures: BBC Prize-Winning Poetry. Peter Porter et al. eds. (Oxford: Heinemann International, 1989), Und auf den Strassen eine Pest Uche Nduka ed. (Bad Honnef, Germany: Horlemann Verlag, 1996) and Voices from the Fringe: An ANA Anthology of New Nigerian Poetry. Harry Garuba ed. (Lagos: Malthouse Press, 1988). His second Collection, Globetrotter & Hitler’s Children (New York: Akaschic Books, 2009), is out. He was the 2005-2006 Writer-in-Residence at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada under the auspices of PEN Canada’s Writer-in-Exile network. He edited Sentinel Online poetry journal from 2005 to 2007. He is a SSHRC Fellow and Doctoral Candidate in English literature at Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the Publisher and Managing Editor of Maple Tree Literary Supplement, MTLS at <www.mtls.ca>. Ede has lived in Canada since 2002, sponsored as a writer-in-exile by PEN Canada. Between 2005 and 2007 he edited an international online poetry journal, Sentinel Poetry Online.^[2][3]

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