Festival teaser: Nobel laureate in Literature Wole Soyinka will be the patron of the Nová dráma/New Drama 2024 Festival!
It is with great pleasure that we welcomed the news that Wole Soyinka, a prominent Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate in Literature, will take over the patronage of the the Nová dráma/New Drama 2024 Festival. Festival guests will have a unique chance to attend his masterclass that will take place on Tuesday, 14 May 2024 at 10 a.m. in the Ifjú Szivek Dance Theatre in Bratislava. Admission to the accompanying events is free of charge. However, prior booking is required. The registration form will be available soon at www.novadrama.sk. To honour our precious guest, the Theatre Institute in Bratislava will publish an anthology of Soyinka’s theatre plays entitled Blázni a špecialisti (Fools and experts).
Wole Soyinka – playwright, poet, novelist, and essayist
The oeuvre of Wole Soyinka, a 1986 Nobel laureate in Literature, consists of more than forty works. Soyinka is still an active member of several international artistic and human rights organizations. Born into a Yoruba family in Nigeria, Soyinka spent his childhood and received education in Nigeria. He completed his university studies in the United Kingdom and later on gained academic experience while teaching at universities all around the globe. He is a professor emeritus of Comparative literature at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, honorary professor at Churchill College, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and a professor at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University in the USA. Currently, Soyinka is a professor of Social sciences and Humanities at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Primarily a playwright, Wole Soyinka is not afraid to explore the rich world of literature and makes use of a large variety of literary genres – including poetry, drama, and prosaic and essay writing – in his work. The main focus of his work is the exploration of humanity trapped in the dichotomy of power and freedom. His two-volume anthology of essays Of Power and Freedom, published in March 2023, presents the best of Soyinka’s reflections on this topic made over a period of nearly fifty years. Soyinka also examines other topics overlapping different cultures, politics and the history in his anthology.
Recently, Wole Soyinka has made a prosaic comeback. His latest novel Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth (2021) was critically well acclaimed and listed as one of the most influential novels of 2021. It has been translated into several languages.
