Jumoke Verissimo
Biography
Jumoke Verissimo was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her poetry collections; i am memory, and The Birth of Illusion was a finalist for the 2017 NLNG Prize for Literature. Her novel, A Small Silence (Cassava Republic), received critical praise and was a finalist for the Edinburgh Festival First Book Award and the RSL Ondaatje Prize Shortlist. The book won the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize. Her most recent book is Grandma and the Moon’s Hidden Secret, a picture book written in Yoruba and translated into English.
Verissimo currently lives in Canada, where she works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Author Photo: Cornelia Faith
A Small Silence
2019
A Small Silence is an intimate and evocative debut charges us to look again at the alienating effects of trauma and the power of solitude and darkness to ignite the imagination.
*Praise
*An intriguing...intimate debut" - Leila Aboulela
"A compelling and compulsive story" - Helon Habila
"A Small Silence feels like an act of literary disruption. Hypnotic, expertly crafted and full of subtle power, it challenges cultural norms around silence, darkness and solitude, leaving the reader changed in ways that are hard to define." - Irenosen Okojie, Guardian
‘The atmosphere of this book was the first thing that drew me in. A feeling of disquiet and tension, even in the quotidian. It manages beauty and lyricism and at the same time as restraint, an impressive line to walk. It left me feeling like I had witnessed a spell of some kind.’ - Evie Wyld (Judge, Ondaatje Prize 2020)
