Gboyega Odubanjo

Gboyega Odubanjo was born on 30 January 1996,^[1][2] in London, England, where he also grew up.^[3]

Odubanjo attended the University of East Anglia between 2014 and 2019.^[4] He earned his Bachelor's degree in English and Philosophy in 2017, and his Master's degree in poetry in 2018.^[5] He was studying for a PhD in creative writing at the University of Hertfordshire at the time of his death.^[3][4]

Gboyega was posthumously awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Hertfordshire for a programme of work entitled Adam: Fear of a Black Planet, as his work had been completed before his death.^[6]

Odubanjo's first pamphlet, While I Yet Live, was published in 2019 by Bad Betty Press.^[5] This was followed by Aunty Uncle Poems, which won the Poetry Business Competition. After his death, Faber announced that Adam, a first full-length collection, would be published in 2024. The book revisits the unsolved murder of an unidentified black boy whose body was discovered in the River Thames in 2001.^[2]

Odubanjo was a board member and former guest editor of Magma Poetry.^[5] He was the editor of bath magg, an online magazine of poetry, and an editor at independent publisher Bad Betty Press.^[3][4]

In August 2023, Odubanjo died in an accidental drowning at the Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire where he was due to perform.^[7][8] He had been reporting as missing for several days before his body was found.^[1][9]