Tolu’ A. Akinyemi

(also known as Tolutoludo) is a multiple award-winning Nigerian British writer of twenty-three books in the genres of poetry, short stories, children's literature, and essays.

His works include Dead Lions Don't Roar (poetry, 2017); Unravel Your Hidden Gems (essays, 2018); Dead Dogs Don't Bark (poetry, 2018); Dead Cats Don't Meow (poetry, 2019); Never Play Games With the Devil (poetry, 2019); Inferno of Silence (short stories, 2020); A Booktiful Love (poetry, 2020); Black ≠ Inferior (poetry, 2021); Never Marry a Writer (poetry, 2021); Everybody Don Kolomental (poetry, 2021); I Wear Self-Confidence Like a Second Skin (children's literature, 2021); I Am Not a Troublemaker (children's literature, 2021); Born in Lockdown (poetry, 2021); A god in a Human Body (poetry, 2022); If You Have To Be Anything, Be Kind (children's literature, 2022); City of Lost Memories, (poetry, 2022); Awaken Your Inner Lion, (essays, 2022); On The Train To Hell, (poetry, 2022); You Need More Than Dreams (poetry, 2023); The Morning Cloud is Empty (poetry, 2023); Architects of a Cleaner Financial System (poetry, 2023); Voyage (poetry, 2024); and Home in Motion (poetry, July 2025).

In 2020, he won the Best Indie Book Award for his poetry collection, A Booktiful Love. His collection of short stories, Inferno of Silence, won the 2021 IRDA Discovery Award for short stories and Next Generation Indie Book Awards (2021) for Best Cover Design (Fiction).

A former headline act at the Allen Valleys Folk Festival, Great Northern Slam, Crossing The Tyne Festival, Feltonbury Arts and Music Festival, Havering Literary Festival, Gateshead Central Library Black History Month event, and the Woolwich Centre Library National Poetry Day event. He was also a guest poet at the Havering Libraries Black History Month event. 

His artistic practice covers public speaking, performance poetry, leading workshops, facilitation, and participatory arts practice for young people and adults. He was a participant in the New Writing North Inkubator annual development programme for writers and freelancers who want to develop skills in facilitation and participatory arts practice with children, young people, and adults. He has delivered workshops locally and nationally. Examples include at the Cramlington Writers’ Group and Havering Literary Festival, among others.

Tolu's works and poems have been featured on BBC Sounds, Spark Sunderland, 57th issue (Volume 15, No. 1) of the Wilderness House Literary Review; The Writers Cafe Magazine Issue 18; Lion and Lilac; Agape Review; Black Moon Magazine; Calla Press; African Writer Magazine; Football in Poetry 2 Anthology; and elsewhere.

His poems have been translated into Greek.

He is the founder of The Roaring Lion Newcastle, a UK-based book publisher, and sits on the board of many organisations.

Credits: Lammie Art