Scissorwork

Author: Uche Nduke

Publisher: Roof Books (2022)

Uche Nduka was born in Nigeria in the 1960s and is bilingual in Igbo and English. His poetic work has also been translated into German, Finnish, Italian, Dutch, and Romanian. After living in Germany and Holland, he moved to the United States in 2007, where he has been teaching and publishing ever since, as well as cultivating a reputation for creative fearlessness and a cadre of unshakable admirers. The Poetry Foundation writes, “Nduka’s work is notable for its surrealist energy and political urgency.”

Nduka uses innovative techniques to challenge the reader while investigating what he calls unexplored linguistic trenches. Instead of repulsion, the reader learns to trust this destabilizing experience, riding with it into vast new perspectives that range in focus from the quotidian assurance of a lover’s embrace to the bilious taste of sudden political violence. Nduka has thrilled readers over numerous splendidly received prose and poetry titles, including eel on reef (2007), Ijele (2012), Nine East (2013), Living in Public (2018), and most recently, 2020’s Facing You.