Ibrahim grew up on his grandmother’s storytelling of African folklore and thus fell in love with stories, and by extension, literature. He picked my first James Hadley Chase novel at 8, and for the love of stories, was done with both the Quran and the Bible by the time he was 10. After he was forcibly sent to science-class in high-school, however, it took him 20 years to find his way back to his passion, in 2019, when he left a successful ten-year career in media & entertainment to become a writer.

In that time, his work has been published in Typehouse Magazine, JMWW, Ake Review, Zone 3, Brittle Paper, Landlocked Magazine, Popula, and more. He won the 2022 Quramo Writers' Prize for his first novel, giveaway bride, which is slated for release in Q3 of 2023. Among other things, he has been shortlisted for the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship and twice for the Moon City Short Fiction Award. He has also been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, as well as Dzanc Diverse Voices Prize. He has been nominated multiple times for both the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net. In July 2022, he was named Writer of the Month by Brittle Paper. He is endorsed by Arts Council England for his ‘writing exceptionality’.

Ibrahim has volunteered with several literary organizations including Bodega Magazine, Ayamba Litcast, Lumiere Review, OkadaBooks, and Rare Swan Press. In 2020, he sat on the jury of a writing competition for kids aged 7 – 12 in 2020, organized by REEL Foundation. After the competition, he edited an anthology of the best stories. This was published in 2021 by Artmosterrific.

Before writing happened, Ibrahim served as a channel manager at Nigezie, the first 24hr music and lifestyle channel in Nigeria, as well as general manager at both Euphoric Heritage Records and Aquila Records where he helped with the music careers of talents like Tillaman, Tekno, Base One, Airboy, among others. Between 2010 and 2018, he also worked as a publicist for brands like Samklef, Olamide, Orezi, Magnito, Do2dtun, Reloaded Magazine, and so on.

Ibrahim presently serves as a country rep and talent liaison at the Journal of African Youth Literature, as well as an associate editor at Hotch Potch Literature and Arts. You can connect with him @heemthewriter on Twitter, Facebook, Medium, and LinkedIn.