Eloghosa Osunde is a Nigerian writer, multidisciplinary maker and worldbender.
Winner of MoAD's African Literary Award (2023), the Plimpton Prize for Fiction (2021), an ASME Award for Fiction (2022), they are the author of the critically acclaimed VAGABONDS! published in 2022 by Riverhead Books (US), Fourth Estate (UK) and Farafina Books (NG). So far, VAGABONDS! — a New York Times' Editors Choice — is a finalist for the Edmund White Prize For Fiction, the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, a top three finalist for the VCU Capbell Prize, has been longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, longlisted for the Nota Bene Prize, is a NoName Book Club Pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick, a Foyles Book Of The Month; has received three starred trade reviews from Kirkus, Booklist and Publisher's Weekly; other glowing reviews from publications including Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, TLS, Guardian, Star Tribune, Autostraddle; was named a Most Anticipated Book of The Year by Entertainment Weekly, Teen Vogue, NYT, NY Mag, i-D/Vice, Harpers Bazaar, British Vogue, Vulture, Pop Sugar, An Other Magazine, Lithub, The Millions, Ms Magazine, Brittle Paper, Open Country amongst others, and repeatedly hailed as a Best Book Of The Year by publications including the New Yorker, NYT, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, Chicago Review of Books and American Library Association. VAGABONDS! has now been translated to Greek by Icaros Babassakis, and was published in paperback in two territories by March this year. Eloghosa was casting director and creative overseer of the audiobook, directed by Frances Loy and Grammy nominee Ali Muirden.
Recently photographed by Carlijn Jacobs, styled by Camilla Nickerson and announced a VS20 artist in Victoria's Secret World Tour '23, Eloghosa's latest work includes a custom monologue crafted for and voiced by Naomi Campbell; introduced by Gigi Hadid; and employs a combination of media to highlight their work as a text, sound and movement artist channeling morphing forms. Profiled by Coveteur for their Class of 2021 issue alongside other stars such as Issa Rae, Suni Lee and Quil Lemons, Eloghosa has also been featured by Elle, Them, Creative Review and Shondaland to name a few. An alumna of the Lambda Literary Workshop (2019), New York Film Academy (2017) and the Caine Prize Workshop (2018), Eloghosa's writing has appeared in multiple publications including Paris Review (where they write a popular surrealist column called 'Melting Clocks'), Granta, Gulf Coast, Georgia Review, Guernica, Lithub, Catapult, Berlin Quarterly and their visual art in Vogue, The New York Times and Paper Magazine. They are a 2020 MacDowell Colony Fellow, the 2021 Prose Judge of Fugue Journal's annual writing contest and some months ago, held [Writing In The Language Of Your Mind] a 2023 sold out masterclass at Lolwe.
In creating art prints for fashion collections or writing songs for music artists, making performance art or immersive mixed-media exhibitions, Eloghosa's work honors medium as an integral part of artmaking. They situate their visual art in the overlap between fiction, photography and painting. Their work tests the limits of reality (who defines it? is it singular? does it matter?) by locating protagonists in intangible, alternate realms where the granular details of time and setting melt to a blur. Eloghosa worked on Orange Culture's SS20 collection, creating art prints for the label which showed at Lagos and New York Fashion Weeks. Their visual art has been exhibited across four continents so far —twice solo; selected for the New York Times Portfolio Review; for Photoville's EmergiCubes (2017) and was most recently at the National Museum in Lagos, Nigeria.
Represented by the Wylie Agency for books, Eloghosa was previously with Anonymous Content, and is now represented by United Talent Agency for Film/TV. They are the writer, director, co-producer and sound curator of TATAFO — a music, fashion and art film loosely based on their debut novel. Awarded a 2017 Miles Morland Scholarship to write their debut work of fiction, their Plimpton-winning short story 'Good Boy,' was also selected by Jesmyn Ward for Best American Short Stories 2021. A [Johnnie Walker x Trace] Africa Top Thirty artist, a Future Awards nominee for Art and Literature, they are also the author of the novel NECESSARY FICTION, forthcoming from Riverhead Books. Books Four and Five are currently loading as Book Three gears up to be announced shortly.
When not in their work?
Eloghosa can be found on a dancefloor somewhere, moving deliberately into morning.