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Jumoke Verissimo

Dr. Jumoke Verissimo

Assistant Professor
DepartmentEnglish
EducationEducation BA (Lagos State University), MA (University of Ibadan) and PhD (University of Alberta)
Areas of ExpertiseAreas of Expertise: Creative writing (poetry, fiction and non-fiction), African literary criticism and literature, memory studies, traumatic affect and research creation.

Biography:

Jumoke Verissimo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English. She teaches and researches in the areas of creative writing (poetry, fiction, and non-fiction). Her scholarship extends to African literary criticism and literature, memory studies, traumatic affect and research creation. 

Dr Verissimo is a globally recognised author who has published two poetry collections (I am memory and The Birth of Illusion); a novel (A Small Silence); and a children’s book (Aduke and the Moon’s Hidden Secret), which she also translated into Yoruba. She is co-editor of Sòròsókè, an anthology on police brutality in Nigeria. 

Her writing is widely anthologized and translated into several languages. Dr. Verissimo’s creative writing has received honours from the Edinburgh Festival First Book Award (shortlist), RSL Ondaatje Prize (shortlist), and the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize (winner) among several others. 

Dr. Verissimo holds a PhD in English from the University of Alberta, MA in Performance Studies from University of Ibadan, and a BA in Literature in English from the Lagos State University. She is completing work on a novel and an essay collection titled “Elliptical Imaginings,” in which she examines the ellipsis as a conceptual framework for her writing practice.