Song & Dread

Otoniya J. Okot Bitek is a poet and scholar. Her collection of poetry, 100 Days (University of Alberta 2016) was nominated for several writing prizes including the 2017 BC Book Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, the 2017 Alberta Book Awards and the 2017 Canadian Authors Award for Poetry. It won the 2017 IndieFab Book of the Year Award for poetry and the 2017 Glenna Lushei Prize for African Poetry. Otoniya lives in Kingston, Ontario, on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe people. Otoniya is an assistant professor of Black Studies at Queen's University where she teaches and writes in the English and Gender Studies departments.