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Oluwaseun Samuel Olayiwola

@itsamule

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Choreographer • Poet • Critic • Lecturer
Strange Beach from @fitzcarraldoeditions and @softskullpress
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However long I mean to hold on to them as possibilities, my untaken trajectories begin to shrivel away from my self-identification. … All this theorizing about the erotic— an overlong introduction to no one at all. … And her ass, like two cloves of garlic. —Forrest Gander, Mojave Ghost Strange Beach has been out for six months 💙🤍 taken in London, United Kingdom by @itsamule
21
a year ago
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Hey y’all 🤠Cowboy Seun here, I’m proud to be able to show you the 🇺🇸cover of my forthcoming book Strange Beach from @softskullpress Shout out to Victoria Maxfield (@vmaxfield) and Nicole Caputo (@nlcaputo) for this cover of dreams, quite literally. My 🇬🇧 baddies, fret not, UK cover design will follow in due time from @fitzcarraldoeditions Strange Beach will be in stores and libraries on January 21st, 2025, but in the meantime help spread the word! // About the book // A debut poetry collection wrangling the various selves we hold and perform—across oceans and within relationships—told through a queer, Nigerian-American lens STRANGE BEACH is the debut collection from poet and choreographer Oluwaseun Olayiwola. Intimate and erotic, ecological and philosophical, the poems in STRANGE BEACH illuminate the body as a porous landscape across which existential dramas, filial fractures, and sexual reckonings occur. The collection ventures across the same 'Atlantic Ocean' as Claudia Rankine's 'Citizen', which is the same 'Atlantic Ocean' in Lowell's 'Life Studies', to reveal a queer consciousness deeply steeped in poetic traditions of nuanced confession and moving abstraction. Strange Beach is geological in its accumulation of images, emotions and landscapes that stack, revolve, eschew meaning and pull gently at the edges of the lyric. The resulting work transmutes messages to the mind of the reader with a feeling of cosmic intuitiveness, as emotion and intellect grapple and become forged. 'No one can follow you here / not having to become something else", observes one speaker, in this collection that reimagines how we love, grow, travel, and most of all, change. taken in New York, New York by @itsamule
50
2 years ago
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the summer in which I learned how to swim (not metaphorical) by @itsamule
45
2 months ago
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Sandeep and I will be at the @lrbbookshop on Wednesday 8 July for a live recording of our new LRB podcast, ‘Poetry and the Turning World’. This will be the last in the series, so let’s go out on a bang! 😂 Philip Larkin said ‘Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three’. But how do poets write about sex now - and is it any good? We’ve asked special guests Sophie Robinson (@sophiepoetry) and Oluwaseun Olayiwola (@itsamule) to talk about a steamy poem of their own, alongside a poem from the recent past that’s inspired them. Tickets available at link in bio. ‘Poetry and the Turning World’ is a special short series on the LRB Podcast, looking at the ways in which contemporary poetry deals with our everyday challenges and the wider changes we face globally. Sandeep and Sarah will take different themes and explore when and where poetry can be a guiding force for understanding individual and collective experiences. The subjects covered in the series will be work, technology, divorce, sex, weather, food and money. by @itsamule
0
3 months ago
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A live recording of the new 𝘓𝘙𝘉 podcast, ‘Poetry and the Turning World’. Sex in novels is commonplace, there even used to be an annual award for bad sex in fiction. But how do poets write about sex – and is it any good? Join Sarah Howe (@luckyflowerhowe) and Sandeep Parmar (@parmarsandeepk) for a live recording of their new 𝘓𝘙𝘉 podcast at the @lrbbookshop, with special guests Sophie Robinson (@sophiepoetry) and Oluwaseun Olayiwola (@itsamule). Tickets available at the link in our bio. ‘Poetry and the Turning World’ is a special short series on the 𝘓𝘙𝘉 Podcast, looking at the ways in which contemporary poetry deals with our everyday challenges and the wider changes we face globally. Sandeep and Sarah will take different themes and explore when and where poetry can be a guiding force for understanding individual and collective experiences. The subjects covered in the series will be work, technology, divorce, sex, weather, food and money. You can listen to the first two episodes in the series at the links in our bio. by @itsamule
0
3 months ago
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New episode of the podcast out now! I talked to the amazing @itsamule about his poem ‘Strange Beach’ from the collection of the same name, published by @fitzcarraldoeditions/@softskullpress. We talk form, the body, desire, em-dashes, water, Claudia Rankine, Adam Phillips and much more. Listen wherever you get your shows. Subscribe, rate and review, share this episode far and wide 💕 by @itsamule
1
4 months ago
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We were delighted to have @itsamule visit us on Oxford Street the other day, reading from his mesmeric collection, ‘Strange Beach’. You can pick up a copy from our shop, or via bookshop.org ✨ Thank you for stopping by and for your wonderful poetry! 🧡☀️ #poetrypharmacy #poetryonprescription #literarylondon #poetrylovers #poetrycommunity by @itsamule
9
4 months ago
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Join us on Wednesday 27 May at 6pm for an evening of poetry and conversation celebrating the work of Pulitzer Prize–nominated Palestinian novelist, memoirist and poet Hala Alyan (@hala.n.alyan). To welcome novelist, memoirist and poet Hala Alyan to London, contemporary lyric poets So Mayer, Haia Mohammed (@dear.anam.cara) and Oluwaseun Olayiwola (@itsamule) will share readings that explore the intimate intersections of the personal and the political. The evening will culminate in a reading from Hala’s own work, followed by a conversation with Anthony Anaxagorou. (@anthony_anaxagorou) 🎟️🔗 Book your free ticket via the link in bio. #Ibraaz #IbraazLondon taken in Ibraaz by @itsamule
2
5 months ago
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Excited to announce that we have signed copies of Strange Beach by Oluwaseun Olayiwola @itsamule published by @fitzcarraldoeditions in stock! 💙 Strange Beach is the debut collection from poet and choreographer Oluwaseun Olayiwola. Intimate and erotic, ecological and philosophical, the poems in Strange Beach illuminate the body as a porous landscape across which existential dramas, filial fractures and sexual reckonings occur. The collection ventures across the same ‘Atlantic Ocean’ as Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, which is the same ‘Atlantic Ocean’ in Lowell’s Life Studies, to reveal a queer consciousness deeply steeped in poetic traditions of nuanced confession and moving abstraction. Strange Beach is geological in its accumulation of images, emotions and landscapes that stack, revolve and eschew. The resulting work transmutes messages to the mind of the reader with a feeling of cosmic intuitiveness, as emotion and intellect grapple and become forged. ‘No one can follow you here / not having to become something else’, observes one speaker, in this collection that reimagines how we love, grow, travel, and most of all, change. 🔥📖🔥📖🔥📖🔥 A must read! Link to buy in our bio and stories ⬆️ #thecommonpress #fitcaraldoeditions #oluwaseunolayiwola by @itsamule
1
6 months ago
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Read Oluwaseun Olayiwola's thoughtful 4000 word essay 'As You Are' in issue 4 of the Erotic Review and get your ticket for our event at the ICA to hear him read and discuss the work at our event 'The Body: Digital/Real/Imagined'. Link for magazines and tickets in our bio... Photography @edparksphotography. Art direction and design by @studiofrith. #exploringdesire #eroticreview #essay #ica by @itsamule
0
9 months ago
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Join us in @thecarolcroningallery this Saturday at 1:30pm for an event with poet and choreographer Oluwaseun Olayiwola @itsamule 🖋🖌 Book on our website, link in bio ⬆ Oluwaseun will be reading from his debut colleciton 'Strange Beach' in this unique setting surrounded by Carol's incredible work. Intimate and erotic, ecological and philosophical, the poems in 'Strange Beach' illuminate the body as a porous landscape across which existential dramas, filial fractures and sexual reckonings occur 💙 #DingleLit #Poetry #StrangeBeach #PoetryReading #Ocean taken in The Carol Cronin Gallery by @itsamule
2
10 months ago
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‘Strange Beach’ has been named one of the best debut books of 2025 by @debutiful — thank you @vitcavage for the inclusion and the reading 🥹 It’s very special for lil ol’ me in 🇬🇧 to know the book is finding readers in the 🇺🇸 Note: it can feel like any act is just noise amongst the literal calamities (genocides in multiple geographies; a ceasefire that continues to be broken; the erosion on Americans citizens rights; mitigable, if not preventable, extreme weather events in nations not nearly as responsible for the warming of the planet; nail after nail in the open coffin of Trans Rights and Liberation; reaffirmations of parasitic patriarchies all over the world….the list goes on and is ongoing. What does interiority have to do with this? Is interiority good enough if it doesn’t change the exterior? These are questions I’ve been asking myself since the book was published. And a question I continue to grapple with as I continue to write; when others cannot, or are not given the right to. The dismalness of identity —- “The cost / of being visible / is being visible” — I’ve asked myself, what kinds of amelioration, for myself, and others am I able to provide? This book was one amelioration and to it’s been the joy of my life that people have even picked it up. by @itsamule
11
10 months ago
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