Esiaba Irobi (1960-2010) was a distinguished Nigerian playwright, poet, stage director, actor, literary theorist and scholar. Esiaba Irobi, never really got the full recognition that he eminently deserved until he passed on.

Educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), the University of Sheffield and the University of Leeds, both in England, lrobi’s specialisation was in Drama, Film and Theatre Studies. He was the first Nigeria, resident outside the country, to win the coveted prize and also the first and only one so far to have won the prize posthumously. He went the way of all mortals after submitting the award-winning entry, Cemetery Road. His other works include The Colour of Rusting Gold (1989), Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh (l989), Hangmen Also Die (1989), Nwokedi (1991), The Other Side of the Mask (1999), The Fronded Circle (1999) etc.