Richard Ali, a lawyer, was born in Kano, Nigeria and grew up in the resort town of Jos. He holds an LL.B in Civil Law from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2010. He was the youngest magazine Editor in Nigeria at the Kaduna-based Sardauna Magazine [2004—2006].

Author of the warmly received 2012 novel, City of Memories, Richard is also Editor-in-Chief of the Sentinel Nigeria Magazine and was a runner-up at the 2008 John la Rose Short Story Competition. In March 2008, he was selected amongst 50 other emerging Nigerian writers to participate in the British Council’s Radiophonics Workshop. He joined the Sentinel Literary Movement of Nigeria in 2011 and has undertaken the editing of its quarterly Sentinel Nigeria Magazine [www.sentinelnigeria.org] since then. He is also on the Board of the pan-African Transcultural Academy chaired by Beverly Nambozo Nsengiyunva at the forefront of redefining African literature and its study.

In 2011, at the International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors, he was elected as Publicity Secretary [North] for a term of two years after having served at the Plateau State chapter for years. He was reelected unanimously in the same office in 2013.

Richard completed a 6-week Residency at the Ebedi Writers Residency Program in 2012, attended the Chimamanda Adichie-led Farafina Workshop in 2012 and was a Guest at the 2013 Ake Book and Arts Festival, Abeokuta. He also was a participant in the GRANTA-British Council New Writing workshop held in Nairobi in 2013. He lives in Abuja where he practices law and runs Parrésia Publishers Ltd where he serves as Chief Operating Officer. He is unmarried and enjoys chess, reading and travelling.

He is working on his debut collection of poems, The Divan.

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