Tolu Oloruntoba was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he studied and practiced medicine. He is the author of two collections of poetry, The Junta of Happenstance (Palimpsest Press / Anstruther Books), winner of the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize and Governor General’s Literary Award, and Each One a Furnace (McClelland & Stewart / Penguin Random House Canada), a Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize finalist. He gave the 2022 League of Canadian Poets Anne Szumigalski Lecturer, and is a Civitella Ranieri fellow.