Dr. Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Calgary, Canada. He was the 2021 winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism, among several national and international awards. His poetry collection, there’s more, is currently on the shortlist for the 2024 Alberta Book Publishers’ Award. His next poetry collection was one of the winners of the 2023/24 Alberta Foundation for the Arts and will be published in North America by the University of Calgary Press and in Nigeria by Masobe Books.
Dr. Umezurike’s critical works have been published in journals such as the Journal of African Literature Association, Metacritic, Men and Masculinities, Journal of African Cultural Studies, and Postcolonial Text, amongst others. An award-winning creative writer, Umezurike is the author of literary works such as there’s more (2023), Double Wahala, Double Trouble (2021), Wish Maker (2021), and a co-editor of Wreaths for a Wayfarer (2020).
Dr. Umezurike is a co-investigator on two research projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of Calgary, respectively. He is also a collaborator on another project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. These projects aim to transform the lives of African and Black Canadian children and youth in Canada, mentor emerging African scholars in Ghana, and address health equity for Black People in Canada.
In addition, Dr. Umezurike is a member of the steering and advisory committee of the Black Youth Leadership and Mentorship Program in Canada. His roles as an academic/literary mentor and speaker in educational institutions demonstrate his commitment to nurturing talent and engaging with diverse audiences.
Overall, Dr. Umezurike’s impressive academic and literary achievements, mentorship, collaborative research initiatives, and community engagement exemplify his commitment to research excellence and his dedication to bridging academia and the broader community, particularly in the context of African and African Diaspora literatures, postcolonial literatures, gender and masculinity studies, cultural studies, and creative writing.