Olumide Popoola

Olúmìdé Pópóọlá is a London-based Nigerian-German writer, speaker and performer. Her latest novel When We Speak of Nothing was published in July 2017, by Cassava Republic Press.

Biography and work Pópóọlá was born in Germany to a German mother and a Nigerian father. She moved to Nigeria as a toddler and spent five years there before returning to Germany. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing, a MA in Creative Writing and a BSc in Ayurvedic Medicine.

Writing Her publications include essays, poetry, and prose. While writing, she gets her inspiration from the people that surround her. She exclaims that she is "...interested in the small, hidden away stories"

In a 2017 interview with the Nigerian Guardian, Pópóọlá reflects on her decision to become a writer. She confesses that she "...was a child with a wild and rich imagination... when [she] realized that you could construct stories, put them together yourself, [she] knew that that is what [she] wanted to do also."

Other creative work In 2013 Pópóọlá was featured in German bassist Edward Maclean's song "Still", in his album Edward Maclean's Adoqué.

In 2018 Pópóọlá curated the African Book Festival Berlin, which focused on the themes of transnationalism and migration.

Pópóọlá is the project leader of Futures in the Making, an organization that provides writing workshop lessons for LGBTQ+ youth.

Also by Mail Pópóọlá's play Also by Mail revolves around a divided family in Nigeria, specifically Nigerian German siblings Wale and Funke, coming together to mourn their father's death. While the adults in the family become fixated on the father's will, the youths struggle to find their voice. This story deals with themes such as racism, cultural and generational differences, loss, and greed. Marion Kraft, the author of The African Continuum and African American Women Writers, describes how, in writing this play, Pópóọlá is "poignantly and authentically representing the lives, the diversity, the struggles and aspirations of people in the Black diaspora, their quest for identity and justice."

British novelist Diana Evans in a review in The Financial Times describes When We Speak of Nothing as a "satisfying and perceptive examination of the emergence of the whole person against the odds posed by a constricting society."