Samuel Kọ́láwọ́lé is the author of the novel The Road to the Salt Sea (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2024), which began as his AGNI story "Sweet sweet strawberry taste." His fiction has also appeared in Kweli Journal, Harvard Review, Gulf Coast, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere, as well as in anthologies within and outside Africa, including Behind the Shadows: Contemporary Stories by African and Asian Writers, edited by Rohini Chowdhury and Zukiswa Wanner. Kọ́láwọ́lé received a 2025 Whiting Award, and his work has been supported with fellowships, residencies, and scholarships from, among others, the Norman Mailer Center, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and Wellstone Centre in the Redwoods. Born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria, he is assistant professor of English and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University. (updated 4/2025)