The Roaring Lion Newcastle is proud to announce the release of Home in Motion, a reflective and timely poetry collection by multiple award-winning Nigerian British writer Tolu’ A. Akinyemi. The collection will be available from July 1st, 2025.
Following the success of works such as A Booktiful Love, Inferno of Silence and 20 other titles, Akinyemi returns with a compelling series of 48 poems that explore ideas of place, identity, migration, and belonging.
“Tolu’ said, Home in Motion is very dear to my heart because of the thematic elements it explores. As a poet who has found home away from home, the poems within the collection would resonate with anyone who has found a home in a new place and those who would be embarking on their search for home.
From the nostalgic pull of Ekiti to the quiet resilience found in Newcastle upon Tyne, Akinyemi uses poetry as a bridge across worlds, honouring the cities and migrations that shape us. Titles such as Deflowered, This is Our City, Home is a Replica, and Ekiti offer glimpses into the emotional terrain of a writer constantly moving and making meaning as he goes.
Home in Motion is a collection for anyone who has stood at the crossroads of identity, building belonging, or starting over. It is a landmark addition to Akinyemi’s growing body of work and a testament to his power as a literary voice.
This release also celebrates the continued rise of The Roaring Lion Newcastle — the UK-based publishing house founded to amplify underrepresented voices and drive forward authentic storytelling.
Synopsis of Home in Motion:
This poetry collection is a foray into the mindscape of a migrant and his changing definitions of home; an exploration of physical spaces and psychological territories. Each poem in Home in Motion is a love affair between the poet persona and the cities that once offered him a warm bed; his allegiance torn between his place of birth and his residence.
The terse verses are like peeks through glass windows at ideal neighbourhoods. They embrace brief walks through the safe streets of nostalgia and return to the reality of fleeting seasons. The book explores themes of identity, community, migration, interrogating memory, and many experiences in-between.
Through several pages and cities of morphing metaphors, one definition stands out: “Home is where the heart finds the freedom to pull at strings of dreams, strike chords of ecstasy.”
Bio:
Tolu’ A. Akinyemi (also known as Tolutoludo & the Lion of Newcastle) is a multiple award-winning Nigerian British writer of twenty-three books in the genres of poetry, short stories, children’s literature, and essays.
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 Great Northern Slam, Crossing The Tyne Festival, Feltonbury Arts and Music Festival, The Havering Literary Festival. He was the guest poet at Havering Libraries Black History Month event in October 2021 and has previously headlined at Woolwich Centre Library National Poetry Day event in October 2018.
His works have been featured on BBC Sounds, Spark Sunderland, Lion and Lilac, and elsewhere.
He is the founder of The Roaring Lion Newcastle, a UK-based book publisher, and sits on the board of many organisations.