Conjunctions #37, Twentieth Anniversary Issue

Conjunctions #37

by Chinua Achebe

In its first issue, published a quarter of a century ago, Conjunctions established itself immediately as a major journal of international literary arts, with contributors including Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, Octavio Paz, Denise Levertov and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Over the ensuing years, it has remained at the forefront, publishing writing by then-unknowns William T. Vollmann, David Foster Wallace, Rick Moody, Mary Caponegro and Jonathan Safran Foer. This special Twenty-fifth Anniversary Issue continues the work at which Conjunctions is unparalleled: discovering tomorrow's literary giants while keeping readers abreast of new work by the most important, edgy and distinguished voices of the day. This issue showcases new fiction, poetry and essays by such luminaries as Jonathan Lethem, Jim Crace, William H. Gass, Robert Coover, John Ashbery, Ann Lauterbach, Thalia Field, John Barth, Rikki Ducornet, Joyce Carol Oates, C. D. Wright, Peter Straub, Shelley Jackson, Richard Powers, David Shields, Lydia Davis, Rick Moody, Marjorie Welish and Jorie Graham, along with a number of surprise guest writers. As the first issue of Conjunctions defined the fiction and poetry that came to dominate the last 25 years, so this issue will become an indispensable handbook for our literary future.

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

Works, including the novel Things Fall Apart (1958), of Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe describe traditional African life in conflict with colonial rule and westernization.

This poet and critic served as professor at Brown University. People best know and most widely read his first book in modern African literature.

Christian parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria reared Achebe, who excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. World religions and traditional African cultures fascinated him, who began stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian broadcasting service and quickly moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe defended the use of English, a "language of colonizers," in African literature. In 1975, controversy focused on his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist."

When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe, a devoted supporter of independence, served as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved in political parties but witnessed the corruption and elitism that duly frustration him, who quickly resigned. He lived in the United States for several years in the 1970s, and after a car accident left him partially disabled, he returned to the United States in 1990.

Novels of Achebe focus on the traditions of Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences, and the clash of values during and after the colonial era. His style relied heavily on the Igbo oral tradition, and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs, and oratory. He also published a number of short stories, children's books, and essay collections. He served as the David and Marianna Fisher university professor of Africana studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

ollowing a brief illness, Achebe died.