Books

Poetry, translation,
and editorial work

Three poetry collections, a co-edited annual anthology, and the republication of a classic Nigerian travel memoir — alongside editorial credits spanning Aké Review, NTLitMag, and beyond.

Poetry collections

Èṣù at the Library

2024 · Poetry

Èṣù at the Library
& Other Poems

Amazon Kindle & Paperback

A poet in a new city, a linguist at Primark, a native son meeting a familiar deity in a foreign town — in books, in the faces and voices of strangers, on trains, in the histories that intersect with traumas and pleasures. In Èṣù at the Library, Túbọ̀sún returns to his favourite tools of travelogue as a vehicle for the interrogation of memory through the limits of language. Presented at the University of Oxford in November 2024 as part of the AI, Decoloniality and Creative Poetry Translation symposium.

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Ìgbà Èwe

2021 · Poetry / Bilingual

Ìgbà Èwe

Translated Poems of Emily R. Grosholz · Illustrated by Yẹ́misí Aríbisálà

A bilingual collection featuring original Yorùbá translations of Childhood (2014) by Emily R. Grosholz — philosopher, poet, and Edwin Erle Sparks Professor at Pennsylvania State University. Twenty-six poems alongside their English originals. Published with support from UNICEF; a fixed percentage of proceeds supports Nigerian children's organisations.

Kindle — Amazon Paperback — Amazon Signed Copy — eBay Roving Heights

Blurbs

"Translation is the common language of languages. Kọ́lá has shown the way — he is among the young practical visionaries of the New Africa."

— Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, author of The Perfect Nine

"This is translation in its fullest sense — managing to convey the spirit of a lived world grounded in Pennsylvania while bringing it into rapport with the imaginative resources of the Yorùbá poetic repertoire."

— Dame Karin Barber (DBE, FBA), London School of Economics

"The tender poetry in Ìgbà Èwe wonders at the sorrows and mysteries of the self. Túbọ̀sún's translation is delightful and loyal to the original text; singing with the same awe in a new, essential voice."

— Logan February, author of In the Nude

"From author to translator, they have bequeathed to our literatures the exemplary art of cultural dialogue across languages."

— Professor Remi Raji, University of Ìbàdàn

"Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún pa kítí mọ́ra o sì gbé Ìgbà Èwe kalẹ̀ gẹ́gẹ́ bì àwòkọ́ṣe fún ọjọ́ iwájú irú iṣẹ́ báyìí." [He has laid it down as a model for future work of this kind.]

— Tádé Ìpàdéọlá, author of Sahara Testaments

Reviews

Edwardsville by Heart

2018 · Poetry / Travelogue

Edwardsville
by Heart

Wisdom's Bottom Press, Oxford UK

A debut collection born from a Fulbright residency in Southern Illinois — part travelogue, part lyric meditation, a record of language, displacement, and learning to read a new place. Named one of 48 notable African books of 2018 by Brittle Paper, and one of Africa's Must-Read Books of 2018 by African Arguments.

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Blurbs

"The nomadic drive of this book propels the reader through the exploration of self as home, as nation, as language, as love and as displacement… it is the journey that holds it together."

— Chris Abani, author of GraceLand and Sanctificum

"Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún gives us fresh eyes to see what we thought was familiar — what it means to be a stranger, what it means to belong, to listen and to speak."

— Geoff Schmidt, author of Out of Time, University of North Texas Press

"In form and content, this is a convincing collection of travel verse tinged with nostalgia. I enjoyed the empathy, hilarity, and curiosity of these poems."

— Uche Nduka, author of Ijele

"With his authentic and electric voice, I consider him one of the best contemporary Nigerian poets."

— Unoma Azuah, Professor of Creative Writing, Illinois Institute of Art

"Brilliantly and attentively paints an inclusive sense of encounter with a new place and a different people, with uncommon tenderness and insight."

— Peter Akinlabí, author of Iconography

Reviews

Edited & published

Best Literary Translations

2024–2026 · Annual Anthology · Africa Co-editor

Best Literary
Translations

Deep Vellum Publishing · Co-editors: Noh Anothai, Wendy Call, Öykü Tekten & Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún

The first U.S. anthology devoted entirely to literary translation — an annual featuring the year's best poetry, short fiction, and essays drawn from U.S.-affiliated literary journals. Túbọ̀sún serves as Africa co-editor from the inaugural 2024 edition, joining co-founders Noh Anothai, Wendy Call, and Öykü Tekten. The series has been renewed through 2027.

Editions

  • 2026 — Guest editor: Arthur Sze (National Book Award winner, U.S. Poet Laureate) · 62 languages Amazon  ·  Deep Vellum
  • 2025 — Guest editor: Cristina Rivera Garza (Pulitzer Prize winner) · 19 languages Amazon  ·  Deep Vellum
  • 2024 — Guest editor: Jane Hirshfield · 19 languages · Named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers Amazon  ·  Deep Vellum

Reviews

An African Abroad by Olabisi Ajala

2022 · Travel Memoir · Editor & Preface

An African Abroad

By Mashood Ọlábísí Àjàlá (1963) · Republished by OlongoAfrica Press, 2022 · Foreword by Joane Àjàlá

In 1957, Mashood Ọlábísí Àjàlá set out from Nigeria on a motor scooter and traveled through eighty-seven countries — interviewing Nehru, Khrushchev, Golda Meir, and the Shah of Iran along the way. His 1963 memoir went out of print when its London publisher folded and was never reprinted — until now. Túbọ̀sún edited this annotated edition and wrote its preface, restoring a classic of African travel writing to print for the first time in nearly sixty years. Published in collaboration with Àjàlá's Australian family, with a foreword by Joane Àjàlá, who typed and edited the original manuscript.

"The wit and boundless optimism of the man bold enough to go where many of us today now merely aspire, limited mostly by the globalisation of paranoia."

— Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, from the Preface
Masobe Books (Nigeria) Amazon Flaming Hydra

Reviews

Edo North: Field Studies of the Languages and Lands of the Northern Edo

2011 · Academic Volume · Co-editor

Edo North: Field Studies of the Languages and Lands of the Northern Edo

Zenith Book House · Essays in Honour of Professor Ben O. Elugbe · ISBN 9789784885584

A co-edited collection of academic essays in honour of Professor Ben O. Elugbe — a foundational text in Northern Edo language documentation, drawing contributions from across African linguistics.

WorldCat