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Poetry.
The Actual
Poems / October 2020 // ISBN: 9781908058782
The Actual is a symphony of personal and political fury— sometimes probing delicately, sometimes burning with raw energy. In 55 poems that swerve and crackle with a rare music, Inua Ellams engages empire and its legacies of racism, injustice and toxic masculinity.
Written on the author’s phone, in transit, between meetings, before falling asleep and just after waking, this is poetry as polemic, as an act of resistance, but also as dream-vision.
At its heart, this book confronts the absolutism and ‘foolish machismo’ of hero culture—from Trump to Rudyard Kipling, Batman and the Joker. Through the thick gauze of history, these breathtaking poems look the world square in the face and ask, “What the actual—?”
£9.99 // Available from Penned In The Margins.
the half god of rainfall
Poem / Play April 2019 // ISBN: 9780008324773
There is something about Demi. When this boy is angry, rain clouds gather. When he cries, rivers burst their banks and the first time he takes a shot on a basketball court, the deities of the land take note.
His mother, Modupe, looks on with a mixture of pride and worry. From close encounters, she knows Gods often act like men: the same fragile egos, the same unpredictable fury and the same sense of entitlement to the bodies of mortals.
She will sacrifice everything to protect her son, but she knows the Gods will one day tire of sports fans, their fickle allegiances and misdirected prayers. When that moment comes, it won’t matter how special he is. Only the women in Demi’s life, the mothers, daughters and Goddesses, will stand between him and a lightning bolt.
From award winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams, comes an epic story of love, basketball, female solidarity and ultimate, ultimate revenge.
£10 // Available from Amazon / £10 // Available from Bookshop.Org.
#Afterhours
Anthology / Diary / Memoir / Poems. April 2017 // ISBN: 9781911027164
" In 2015, Inua Ellams was poet in residence at The National Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre in London. His #Afterhours project took him on a voyage of cultural translation and transposition through time and place, to the heart of the library’s rare books collection, and through his own life’s story as he selected poems published during each year of his life, from birth to the age of 18.
In return, Ellams opens up a captivating and potent dialogue between poems, writing a diary and intricately-crafted poems of his own in conversational response to poems by a variety of contemporary poets selected from The National Poetry Library’s collections. Here, for the first time together, are the collected #Afterhours poems alongside the re-discovered poems which inspired them, and the diary entries that follow this journey. In Ellams’ meticulous hands, this becomes an entire narrative in its own right, compelling and magnetic, drawing parallels of displacement, language and reclamation, and showing poetry’s great capacity to be a powerful amplifier of human experience."
£9.99 // Available from Nine Arches.
THE WIRE-HEADED HEATHEN (kindle)
Poetry Pamphlet. April 2015. // ISBN: 9781617753862
“The Wire-Headed Heathen is a foray into the art of vitality peppered with a language that is at once evocative and mutinous . . . At times playful and always incisive, Ellams’ is a mineral-rich poetry, organic in its ability to speak across oceans, cultures, and histories. Critical of a contemporary life that has placed the material over the ethereal, Ellams reminds the reader of just how central the art of storytelling is to our ability to locate ourselves in the constant transformation that de nes our daily lives.” —Matthew Shenoda
“The archaeologist / who dusts her teeth will catch the yellow glint / beneath and read her soul back to life and give to us what’s free.” – Inua Ellams, from “To Preserve Value”
From The 2015 African Poetry Box Set by Akashic Books.
Reviews: Sabotage Reviews and African In Words (Box set review: Africa In Words).
£4.00 // Also Available from Amazon.
The Wire-Headed Heathen (epub/ibooks)
Poetry Pamphlet. April 2015. // ISBN: 9781617753862
“The Wire-Headed Heathen is a foray into the art of vitality peppered with a language that is at once evocative and mutinous . . . At times playful and always incisive, Ellams’ is a mineral-rich poetry, organic in its ability to speak across oceans, cultures, and histories. Critical of a contemporary life that has placed the material over the ethereal, Ellams reminds the reader of just how central the art of storytelling is to our ability to locate ourselves in the constant transformation that de nes our daily lives.” —Matthew Shenoda
“The archaeologist / who dusts her teeth will catch the yellow glint / beneath and read her soul back to life and give to us what’s free.” – Inua Ellams, from “To Preserve Value”
Reviews: Sabotage Reviews and African In Words (Box set review: Africa In Words).
£4.00
CANDY COATED UNICORNS AND CONVERSE ALL STARS.
Poetry Pamphlet. November 2011. // ISBN: 9781905233335
Candy-Coated Unicorns & Converse All Stars is a document of transformations, the fine lines between the real and the surreal, the mundane and the extraordinary. Contemporary culture clashes with mythology as Bruce Lee angles for space alongside Prometheus, where twin towers burn and yellow hues bleed into London sunsets.
Yet it is a text of conversations: the transformations that memory can inflict on the present, the clear light that today can cast on yesterdays. Through it all there is music and musicians, a language that Inua Ellams seems to be exploring, testing, riffing on.
Flap Series. Published by Flipped Eye.
£4:00 // Available from Amazon / £4:00 // Available from Flipped Eye.
THIRTEEN FAIRY NEGRO TALES.
Poetry Pamphlet. October 2005. // ISBN: 9781905233045
The second in the ground-breaking mouthmark series, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales is a vibrant pamphlet of contemporary poetry. In language scooped directly from a paintbrush, Inua Ellams announced his arrival on the poetry scene, with what has become a runaway bestseller.
Written in language that has roots in Keats, hip hop rhymes and Shakespearean narrative, in the voice of a wandering/wondering storyteller and urban philosopher and social commentator, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales has sold over 2000 copies since its release.
Mouthmark Series. Published by Flipped Eye.
£4:00 // Available from Amazon.
SIX / thirteen fairy negro tales.
Audio recording. February 2008.
Recorded by John Hendicott at Musflash Studios, Six of the Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales captures the detail, tenderness, passion and effortless mellifluous quality Inua Ellams brings to the reading of his poems.
01. Intro // 02. Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales // 03. Gangsters Geishas & Goat Herdsmen // 04. Midnight Music Marauders // 05. The Last Bohemian // 06. Dustbin Diaries. // 07. Swahilian Gingerbread Men.
Available for digital download.
£5.00
PLAYS.
Antigone
Play / Sep 2022 // ISBN: 9781350368712
A torn family. A hostile state.
One heroic brother. One misguided son.
One conflicted sister, and the second is on the run.
A blistering retelling of the epic story from the writer of Barber Shop Chronicles, Inua Ellams
This edition was published to coincide with the production at Regent Park's Open Air Theatre in September 2022.
£9.89 // Available from Bloomsbury.
the little prince
Play / Jan 2020 // ISBN: 9781786828705
Broken down in the Sahara Desert, a pilot meets an extraordinary Little Prince, travelling across time and space to bring peace to his warring planet.
Inua Ellams’ magical retelling of the much loved story by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry turns the Little Prince into a descendant of an African race in a parallel galaxy. His journey as a galactic emigrant takes us through solar systems of odd planets with strange beings, addresses climate change and morality, and shows how even a little thing can make a big difference.
£9.99 // Available from Bloomsbury.
three sisters
Play / Dec 2019 // ISBN: 9781786829665
Chekhov’s iconic characters are relocated to Nigeria in this bold new adaptation.
Owerri, 1967, on the brink of the Biafran Civil War.
Lolo, Nne Chukwu and Udo are grieving the loss of their father. Months before, two ruthless military coups plunged the country into chaos. Fuelled by foreign intervention, the conflict encroaches on their provincial village, and the sisters long to return to their former home in Lagos.
Following his smash-hit Barber Shop Chronicles, Inua Ellams returns to the National Theatre with this heartbreaking retelling of Chekhov's classic play.
£9.99 // Available from Bloomsbury.
the half god of rainfall
Poem / Play April 2019 // ISBN: 9780008324773
There is something about Demi. When this boy is angry, rain clouds gather. When he cries, rivers burst their banks and the first time he takes a shot on a basketball court, the deities of the land take note.
His mother, Modupe, looks on with a mixture of pride and worry. From close encounters, she knows Gods often act like men: the same fragile egos, the same unpredictable fury and the same sense of entitlement to the bodies of mortals.
She will sacrifice everything to protect her son, but she knows the Gods will one day tire of sports fans, their fickle allegiances and misdirected prayers. When that moment comes, it won’t matter how special he is. Only the women in Demi’s life, the mothers, daughters and Goddesses, will stand between him and a lightning bolt.
From award winning poet and playwright Inua Ellams, comes an epic story of love, basketball, female solidarity and ultimate, ultimate revenge.
£10 // Available from 4th Estate.
Barber shop Chronicles
Stage Play. 2017 // ISBN: 9781786821782
Barber Shop Chronicles is a generously funny, heart-warming and insightful new play set in five African cities, Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos, Accra, and in London.
Inspired in part by the story of a Leeds barber, the play invites the audience into a unique environment where the banter may be barbed, but the truth always telling. The barbers of these tales are sages, role models and father figures who keep the men together and the stories alive.
Published by Oberon.
Available from Bloomsbury and Amazon.
The Spalding Suite
Stage Play. 2015 // ISBN: 9781783198078
When we were young, we worshipped stars,
gleaming long-limbed gods
framed in the act of impossible flight.
For a time we tried to follow,
to carve out our own piece of sky
with a butter-smooth arc of an arm
and a Spalding ball glued to the fingertips…
Seen from a British perspective, The Spalding Suite gets to the heart and soul of the gravity-defying game and delves into the hopes and dreams of those who play it. From the fleeting high of the score and the robust camaraderie of the team, to the poignant lows of a body too worn to play the game.
Published by Oberon. Available from Bloomsbury and Amazon.
CAPE
Stage Play. 2013 // ISBN: 9781783190669
It’s a simple idea, really:
1. Wear a uniform. 2. Protect who you love, what you care about. 3. Let nothing get in your way
Someone mugged Bruce’s mum and he is not having it. The shock is still visible in her trembling fingers, rippling out across the calm waters of their lives. He grabs his hoodie, his uniform, his cape and goes out to find the culprit. Smithy wants everyone to stay inside, Uhuru wants everyone out. Tanya thinks it’s boyish fun and games until, very suddenly, it isn’t.
Published by Oberon.
BLACK T-SHIRT COLLECTION
Stage Play. 2012. // ISBN: 9781849431910
“The wild things they did with those tees. Some held together by wooden pins. Some strung to wear just once. Some of long thin detachable sleeves...”
A T-shirt is something most people have. It is a common denominator like a pair of blue jeans or a pair of Converse All Stars. From Fringe First winner Inua Ellams, comes a new story about two foster brothers building a global t-shirt brand. On their journey from a market in Nigeria to a sweatshop in China, Matthew and Muhammed discover the consequences of success. The play tackles capitalism and exploitation, as well as sectarianism and homophobia in modern day Nigeria.
Published by Oberon.
Knight watch.
Stage Play. 2012. // ISBN: 9781849434041
In a world where tower blocks are stone mountains and city walls are urban tapestries retelling epic fights, Michael keeps away from the warring tribes until a passerby helps him out of a tight situation. Instantly, he is pulled into the culture he has tried to escape. The city spirals out of control as battle lines are drawn and redrawn. In the quest for balance, loyalty, faith and friendships are tested, but will Michael succeed in ending the war? In rhythmic, sizzling poetry award-winning spoken word artist, Inua Ellams, conjures the violence of a city not unlike London and imagines a more beautiful world beyond it.
Published by Oberon.
untitled
Stage Play. 2010. // ISBN: 9781849431170
To name something is to call it into life, to determine its future. If we let our children name themselves, will they author their own destinies? Will the nameless ones be free? Untitled is a magical realist story set in Nigeria and England, of identical twin boys separated at infancy. In the quarrel after the marred naming ceremony, the mother grabs the titled child and flees, leaving the unnamed brother to lead an impetuous, chaotic, blasphemous existence until the spirits of the land make their stand.
Published by Oberon.
the 14th tale
Stage Play. 2009. // ISBN:9781783198856
The 14th Tale is a hilarious, poetic coming-of-age story about a natural-born trouble maker and his relationship with his father. The story follows Inua’s real life journey from his birth place in Nigeria to the culture-shock of England, charting his trials, tribulations and mischief-making along the way. Using playful rhymes, Inua weaves vivid and endearing characters, while at the same time challenging expectations of what it is to be a young black male in the UK today.In 'The 14th Tale', Inua vividly describes the exploits of a natural-born mischief growing from clay streets in Nigeria to roof tops in Dublin - and, finally, to heartbreak in London.
Published by Oberon.
Available from Bloomsbury and Amazon.
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