John Pepper Clark

John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo was born in Kiagbodo, Nigeria on April 6, 1935. An accomplished poet and playwright, he published under the names John Pepper Clark and J. P. Clark. Clark was educated at the Native Authority School, Okrika and the Government College in Ughelli before attending the University of Ibadan, where he founded The Horn, a magazine of student poetry, and earned a BA in English in 1960. After working as an information officer in the Ministry of Information and the features and editorial writer for the Daily Express, Clark spent a year at Princeton on an academic fellowship from 1962-1963. In 1966, he became a professor in English at the University of Lagos, where he co-edited the literary journal Black Orpheus, eventually retiring in 1980. Clark published several poetry collections, beginning with Poems in 1961, as well as plays such as Song of a Goat (1961) and The Raft (1978). Clark is considered one of the most important authors of Nigerian literature, and he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award for his writings in 1991. He died on October 13, 2020.