Acclaimed Nigerian physician-writer, politician and Secretary General Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA), Hon Wale Okediran, will clock seventy on April 2025.
To celebrate his achievements and contributions in the medical, literature and political space, writers of all genres are called to submit essays for chapters in the book project, Medicine And Literature Without Borders: Health, Humanities And Social Justice in the Writings of Wale Okediran.
Having started out training and practicing as a physician, Okediran eventually developed an interest and lifelong commitment to literature and politics. His novel Tenants of the House, is a fictionalized prose of his experience as a member of the Nigerian parliament between 2003-2007. He would go on to produce several genres of writings short story collections, children’s literatures, biographies, travelogues, newspaper articles among others, while simultaneously serving in various leadership roles – State Chairman, Treasurer, General Secretary, and National President. He was Chairman of the Nigeria Book Fair Trust (NIBFT), and founder of the Ebedi International Writers Residency in Iseyin, Oyo State – that has helped spurned works of many writers.
Submissions for the proposed book – which will explore Dr Okediran’s multidisciplinary contributions to literature, medicine and cultural studies and political discourse – will revolve around the sub themes, social vision and Wale Okediran’s work, the Travelogues of Wale Okediran, Travel Writing as Literature, The Writer as Biographer, The Writer as Literary Administrator: The Praxis of Wale Okediran, The Nexus Between Literature and Film and Wale Okediran’s Place, Writers’ Residencies and the Empowerment of Literature, Politics and Social Justice in Wale Okediran’s Works, Medical Ethics, the Therapeutic Relationship and Wale Okediran’s Writings, Children In Wale Okediran’s Creative Oeuvres, The Medical Humanities, Bibliotherapy, Scriptotherapy, and Wale Okediran’s Writings, and Health, Medical Consciousness and Wale Okediran’s Medical Columns.
All essays must be no more than 5000 to 7000 words, saved in MS Word and submitted on or before December 31, 2024, at [email protected], and edited by former President of ANA and ex-director of the National Council of Arts and Culture (NCAC), Mallam Denja Abdullahi, and Senior Lecturer, Department of English & Literary Studies, Delta State University, Dr Stephen Kekeghe.
