Jumoke Verissimo

Jumoke Verissimo is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Toronto Metropolitan University. She teaches and researches in the areas of creative writing (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction). Her scholarship also extends to African literary criticism and literature, memory studies, traumatic affect, and research-creation. Jumoke 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, a collection of poems on police brutality in Nigeria. 

Her works have been 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), Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize (winner), among several others. 

Dr. Verissimo holds a PhD in English from the University of Alberta, an MA in Performance Studies from the University of Ibadan, and a BA in Literature in English from the Lagos State University. She is currently working on a novel.