Nigerian-Canadian poet Ademola Adesola has announced the forthcoming release of his debut poetry collection, “Dancing with My Tongue,” due for publication in May 2026 by Fairchild Media Publishing. The collection will be available in Nigeria, Canada, the United States and internationally.
Comprising 55 poems, the collection is thematically structured across four sections: Political Ponderings; Razors of Race, Balm of Belonging; Medicine for the Mind; and A Playful Seriousness. The book features a foreword by Professor Olusegun Adekoya, alongside an afterword in which Adesola reflects on the motivations behind the poems and his writerly process.
The collection has drawn praise from a distinguished array of writers and literary critics ahead of its release.
Praise for Dancing with My Tongue
“The sheer range and depth of Ademola Adesola in this volume of preternatural poems demand awe of the reader. The lines throb with passion and they plunge deep into the heart of the matter. A splendid debut from a splendid poet.” — Tade Ipadeola, author of The Sahara Testaments
“Dancing with My Tongue is a consciously crafted book by a young man who bears witness to neocolonial dysfunction in Nigeria, his land of birth, and racial discrimination in Canada, where he attains his educational goal and realises his teaching career ambition. He hews down a forest of falsehoods, holds aloft few stubborn trunks of truth, embraces all that support life, and fights all that diminish it.” — Olusegun Adekoya, author of Ife Testaments
“In this formidable poetry collection, Ademola channels the incandescent fury of a voice that refuses to be stifled. Through these galvanising and raging poems, he delivers a searing indictment of a nation he characterises as a ‘harmattan haze’ and a world that mirrors its many fractures. This is poetry as a manifesto for a world unaware it is broken – a thunderous wake-up call for those in it.” — Jumoke Verissimo, author of Circumtrauma
“In Dancing with My Tongue, the summons of lingual sensations is heeded by the meticulous craft of a poet keenly attuned to the world’s unyielding realities. The reader is drawn to the very threshold where unflinching language sculpts the cadences of war and politics, love and the everyday.” — James Yékú, author of A Phial of Passing Memories
“When poetry comes as a dance, it no longer takes the poet into the silent grove where the wall has no ears. Here, Ademola Adesola’s debut collection is audible in poem after poem enacting frantic tongue-dance lyricism — the sharp and piercing pasquinade of all bards of the sharp tongue, intent on making the world think.” — Ndubuisi Martins, literary critic, poetry theorist, and author of Answers through the Bramble
“Dancing with My Tongue is stubborn, witty, writing against the grain. Half psalm, half street song, Ademola’s words cling and will not leave. Aníkúlápó at heart, he cuts through the noise, language slapping stillness. Take after take, he commands the silence and makes it speak.”— Opemipo Akinsoyinu, author of The Souvenir of a Broken Heart
“Dancing with My Tongue is a scathing, unflinching indictment of Nigeria’s social, political, and educational institutions, rendered in a style that is at once lyrical and relentless. Yet beneath the fury lies a deep concern for the human condition. Collectively, the works read less as mere social commentary and more as a prophetic witness — a call to awareness, reflection, and, ultimately, accountability.” — Uche Uwadiachan, author of Constituency of your Lips
Further praise comes from Tolulope Akinrinde, author of The Third Floor, who describes the collection as “a fearless and thought-provoking poetic tapestry that journeys across continents of conscience and identity” — one that is “provocative, compassionate, and deeply memorable.”
Dancing with My Tongue is published by Fairchild Media Publishing and will be released in May 2026. Further details on purchasing and distribution will be announced shortly.
