Bookcraft Africa hosted a public celebration of Professor Niyi Osundare’s new essay collection, Truth Is Trouble: New and Selected Essays, Speeches, Tributes, Farewells, and Five Pivotal Interviews, drawing literary figures and readers for an evening of conversation, audience questions, and book signing. Among those in attendance was playwright and scholar Femi Osofisan.

The event centred on a conversation between Osundare and publishing consultant Gbenro Adegbola, who engaged the poet on the ideas driving the collection before opening the floor to questions from attendees. The evening closed with a signing session, giving readers the chance to meet Osundare in person and have their copies personalised.

Truth Is Trouble compiles decades of Osundare’s writing across five sections — Troublesome Truths, Troublesome Muses, Troublesome Terrains, Reluctant Farewells, and Five Pivotal Interviews — addressing literature, politics, culture, and identity. The collection argues that literature is not a retreat from reality but a direct confrontation with it, insisting that language remain active in the pursuit of justice and repair.

Adegbola has described the book as a reaffirmation of Osundare’s standing as both poet and public conscience, noting that while truth may be under pressure in the present moment, evading it is never an option the writer takes. Truth Is Trouble is published by Bookcraft Africa and is available now through Bookcraft and Amazon.

Images taken from Bookcraft Africa’s Facebook Page below: