Dami Ajayi


Dami Àjàyí is a Nigerian of Yoruba descent. He is a poet, medical doctor, and music critic. Along with Emmanuel Iduma, he co-founded Saraba Magazine in 2008. He is the author of two collections of poetry and a chapbook.

Biography

Dami Àjàyí was born in Nigeria in 1986. While he was an undergraduate of medicine at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, he met Emmanuel Iduma, with whom he would found Saraba Magazine

Poetry

In 2011, he was listed among the "Eight Young Nigerian Poets Whose Poems Delight" on the Sentinel UK Poetry Blog His first collection of poems, Clinical Blues, was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Prize in 2012. It was published by WriteHouse in 2014, and was longlisted for the biennial Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.
In 2017, his second collection of poetry, A Woman's Body is a Country, was published by Ouida Books) Of the work, Ajayi says "I wanted my book to show how the noun "affection" becomes a verb, and in my attempt I was drawing from a personal reservoir, hoping that my experiences are singular as well as universal." He has been described as one who "writes about love like liquor that drowns a person into his or her feelings."

Prose and criticism

Ajayi has written short stories that have been published in Nigeria and abroad. He currently provides critical reviews about Nigerian music to a number of online publications.

Books