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Eight New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set
This elegant, limited-edition box set features nine chapbooks: eight volumes of poetry, plus an introduction chapbook by editors Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. The eight African poets included are Peter Akinlabi, Viola Allo, Inua Ellams, Janet Kofi-Tsekpo, Liyou Mesfin Libsekal, Amy Lukau, Vuyelwa Maluleke, and Blessing Musariri.
The box set is an annual project of the African Poetry Book Fund, in collaboration with Akashic Books, which seeks to identify the best poetry written by African authors working today, with a special focus on those who have not yet published their first full-length book of poetry.
The box set is an annual project of the African Poetry Book Fund, in collaboration with Akashic Books, which seeks to identify the best poetry written by African authors working today, with a special focus on those who have not yet published their first full-length book of poetry.
- GenresPoetry
200 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 2015
About the author
Kwame Dawes
123 books184 followersBorn in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica . As a poet, he is profoundly influenced by the rhythms and textures of that lush place, citing in a recent interview his "spiritual, intellectual, and emotional engagement with reggae music." His book Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius remains the most authoritative study of the lyrics of Bob Marley.
His 11th collection of verse, Wisteria: Poems From the Swamp Country, was published in January 2006. In February, 2007 Akashic Books published his novel, She's Gone and Peepal Tree Books published his 12th collection of poetry, Impossible Flying, and his non-fiction work, A Far Cry From Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative.
His essays have appeared in numerous journals including Bomb Magazine, The London Review of Books, Granta, Essence, World Literature Today and Double Take Magazine.
In October, 2007, his thirteenth book of poems, Gomer's Song will appear on the Black Goat imprint of Akashic Books. Dawes has seen produced some twenty of his plays over the past twenty-five years including, most recently a production of his musical, One Love, at the Lyric Hammersmith in London .
Kwame Dawes is Distinguished Poet in Residence, Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts and Founder and executive Director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. He is the director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute and the programming director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place in Jamaica in May of each year.
His 11th collection of verse, Wisteria: Poems From the Swamp Country, was published in January 2006. In February, 2007 Akashic Books published his novel, She's Gone and Peepal Tree Books published his 12th collection of poetry, Impossible Flying, and his non-fiction work, A Far Cry From Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative.
His essays have appeared in numerous journals including Bomb Magazine, The London Review of Books, Granta, Essence, World Literature Today and Double Take Magazine.
In October, 2007, his thirteenth book of poems, Gomer's Song will appear on the Black Goat imprint of Akashic Books. Dawes has seen produced some twenty of his plays over the past twenty-five years including, most recently a production of his musical, One Love, at the Lyric Hammersmith in London .
Kwame Dawes is Distinguished Poet in Residence, Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts and Founder and executive Director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. He is the director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute and the programming director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place in Jamaica in May of each year.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 22, 2015
Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani are engaged in a project. The project seems humble; Dawes and Abani are publishing poetry chapbooks. In an era that’s increasingly invested in digital distribution and a market that seems to have less and less room for new talent, that someone would collect previously unpublished chapbooks from lesser known authors and release them in a volume is itself a noble task. But what they’re after is more ambitious than that. I’ll let Kwame Dawes spell it out: “The plan is simple, as publishing plans go. Publish seven to ten chapbooks by African poets a year. Promote said chapbooks. In ten years there be seventy to one hundred chapbooks by African poets that might not have existed before.”
You might mistake that for hubris, but it really isn’t. Each of the poets featured in Eight New-Generation African Poets has yet to publish a full-length book of poetry, though they all soon will, and this is very much their first introduction to a wider reading audience, though the editors assure us they are well-known and established in their literary communities. Liyou Libsekal, Vuyelwa Maluleke, Amy M. Lukaum, Inua Ellams, Viola Allo, Peter Akinlabi, Blessing Musariri, and Janet Kofi-Tsekpo represent a broad swath of the African continent and diaspora, hailing, respectively, from Ethiopia, South Africa, Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Ghana, with several poets now living in the United States and the UK. And more than giving these remarkable poets their first hearing in the west, this volume aims to introduce the poets to a wider African audience. As the introduction tells us, the continent, as diverse and riven in reality as it is monolithic in the western cultural imagination, is a place where literature published in one country rarely crosses the border to another. In a way, this volume serves as a corrective to that trend. Dawes, Abani, and those who helped them bring these poets together are not only giving a platform to new voices, but helping to expand the literary voice of the region.
Review by William Youngblood and continued at http://www.untuckedmagazine.com/revie...
You might mistake that for hubris, but it really isn’t. Each of the poets featured in Eight New-Generation African Poets has yet to publish a full-length book of poetry, though they all soon will, and this is very much their first introduction to a wider reading audience, though the editors assure us they are well-known and established in their literary communities. Liyou Libsekal, Vuyelwa Maluleke, Amy M. Lukaum, Inua Ellams, Viola Allo, Peter Akinlabi, Blessing Musariri, and Janet Kofi-Tsekpo represent a broad swath of the African continent and diaspora, hailing, respectively, from Ethiopia, South Africa, Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Ghana, with several poets now living in the United States and the UK. And more than giving these remarkable poets their first hearing in the west, this volume aims to introduce the poets to a wider African audience. As the introduction tells us, the continent, as diverse and riven in reality as it is monolithic in the western cultural imagination, is a place where literature published in one country rarely crosses the border to another. In a way, this volume serves as a corrective to that trend. Dawes, Abani, and those who helped them bring these poets together are not only giving a platform to new voices, but helping to expand the literary voice of the region.
Review by William Youngblood and continued at http://www.untuckedmagazine.com/revie...
May 23, 2016
Beautiful box sets are my book-buying Achilles heel. Put it in a box, and I will want it. Thus it was with this beautifully crafted box set of contemporary African poetry chapbooks. When I read about the African poetry chapbook project, I was intrigued. What a great way to get these writers to their readers!
I am somewhat familiar with African literature generally, but most of these poets were new to me. Some of the chapbooks were more experimental than I personally prefer, but all of them are good, and the introductions to each chapbook are masterfully and gracefully written. The volume that introduces the series is positively inspiring, and it caused me to look up more by Chris Abani.
My favorite of the chapbooks was that of Vulyelwa Malueke, "Things We Lost in the Fire." Her poem "Big Girl" was so good that I sent it to my niece immediately in a picture from an iPhone because I was too excited to wait for a scanner. Her poems are startling and invigorating. They are meant for reading aloud, and she is a spoken word artist as well as a written word one.
Without this box set, I might not have found her, and that means of discovering new poets is just one reason this whole project is worthwhile. I wish they would start a similar project for other regions or groups of poets as well.
I am somewhat familiar with African literature generally, but most of these poets were new to me. Some of the chapbooks were more experimental than I personally prefer, but all of them are good, and the introductions to each chapbook are masterfully and gracefully written. The volume that introduces the series is positively inspiring, and it caused me to look up more by Chris Abani.
My favorite of the chapbooks was that of Vulyelwa Malueke, "Things We Lost in the Fire." Her poem "Big Girl" was so good that I sent it to my niece immediately in a picture from an iPhone because I was too excited to wait for a scanner. Her poems are startling and invigorating. They are meant for reading aloud, and she is a spoken word artist as well as a written word one.
Without this box set, I might not have found her, and that means of discovering new poets is just one reason this whole project is worthwhile. I wish they would start a similar project for other regions or groups of poets as well.
April 28, 2017
(Akinlabi's work of lengthy narrative poems was difficult to get through, in terms of imagery/metaphor and topic focus, but worth it for his emotional cartography of what it means to be African in the modern era.)
This collection was a lengthy project I took my sweet time on and that is absolutely the best way to engage with this work. The editors clearly let their poets bring to the table poems that they thought showcased the best of their work, and did not restrict them thematically across poets. For the most part, all these chapbooks were fascinating and engaging - some poems hard to read, some poems hard to parse - but every ending felt like a satisfying resolution. I highly recommend this collection to anyone who wishes to explore current African poets and I am certainly going to be getting the other collections.
This collection was a lengthy project I took my sweet time on and that is absolutely the best way to engage with this work. The editors clearly let their poets bring to the table poems that they thought showcased the best of their work, and did not restrict them thematically across poets. For the most part, all these chapbooks were fascinating and engaging - some poems hard to read, some poems hard to parse - but every ending felt like a satisfying resolution. I highly recommend this collection to anyone who wishes to explore current African poets and I am certainly going to be getting the other collections.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews