Fordham University Press has unveiled the cover of The Years of Blood, the debut full-length poetry collection by Nigerian poet Adedayo Agarau.

The collection, which explores themes of memory, trauma, and ritual killings in Nigeria, has already garnered high praise from literary figures, including renowned poet Niyi Osundare.

Osundare describes the collection as “chilling and surreal,” noting its “stunning balance between verbal density, formal experimentation, and intensity of content.”

He adds, “Here is a prime instance of poems unafraid of showing and telling.”

Designed by Nigerian abstract photographer Ololade Olawale, the book cover features a spectral figure draped in white against a sepia-toned background, symbolising the liminal space between presence and absence—a key theme in Agarau’s work.

The manuscript was selected for the Poetic Justice Institute Editor’s Prize for a BIPOC Writer by Elisabeth Frost and JoAnne McFarland.

Acclaimed poets have praised its evocative power, with Remica Bingham-Risher stating, “Evil is a question for God and beauty emerges despite what the politicians have ruined,” while Aracelis Girmay calls it “a history in which the personal and lyrical necessarily run through its marrow.”

Agarau, a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a 2024 Ruth Lilly-Rosenberg Fellowship finalist, has previously published the chapbooks Origin of Name and The Arrival of Rain. He was recently selected for the 2025 Poets & Writers Get the Word Out Program, which supports emerging poets.