The British Council, Abuja in collaboration with Abuja Literary Society (ALS)will on Friday, August 29, host readings from the newly published work of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA)'s general secretary, Denja Abdullahi, titled: Abuja Nunyi (Gbagyi words for This is Abuja).

The work itself, published by Kraftbooks, Ibadan, was a product of the 2005-2006 British Council/Lancaster University Crossing Border on-line writing mentoring project in which Abdullahi participated. The project involved writers across Africa, exchanging writing ideas and specific creative writing assignments with UK-based mentors over a period of nine months. Abdullahi worked on city poems with Meg Peacock, a UK-based writer, as a mentor and the products were the poems that make up the new collection which periscopes the city of Abuja in different delightful dimensions. People who have read the book and who had earlier witnessed the presentation of the work at ANA Abuja July monthly reading at the NICON Hotel, Abuja, were unanimous in their conclusion that since the time of Mamman Vatsa no one has ever sang so lyrically about the city of Abuja the way Abdullahi did in the new poetry collection. A communiquE sent online to Sunday Independent, signed by Ken Okere, Slam Master of ALS, reads: "In perspective, Denja Abdullahi, with Abuja Nunyi, is on his way to becoming the second poet laureate of the city after Mamman Vatsa who oversaw the growth of the city in the early 80s as a soldier-poet Minister of the Federal Capital Territory."