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Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.niiparkes.com

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bluebirdtail

Member Since

July 2007

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/niiayikwei

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Nii Ayikwei Parkes's Blog

I thought I'd share links to a recent essay for World Literature Today and the text from a keynote speech I gave at the Bare Lit festival. Enjoy!

THE ESSAY: The Power of Normal - Exploring the Notion of Story Structure > https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...

THE KEYNOTE SPEECH: By Design - What the Label Says > http://www.jamesmurua.com/long-read-n...

Nii Read more of this blog post »

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Published on June 04, 2018 17:57 • Tags: creativity, exclusion, quality, writing

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Nii Ayikwei Parkes’s books

Average rating: 3.83 · 1,053 ratings · 191 reviews · 30 distinct works • Similar authors

	Tail of the Blue Bird 3.78 avg rating — 700 ratings — published 2009 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Azúcar 4.30 avg rating — 30 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa by Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Kadija Sesay (Editor), Paulo da Costa (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 4.24 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Filigree: Contemporary Black British Poetry 4.13 avg rating — 16 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Makings of You 4.40 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	NW15: The Anthology of New Writing (15) by Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Goodreads Author), Bernardine Evaristo (Editor), Maggie Gee (Editor) 3.58 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2007	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Geez really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2020 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Eyes of a Boy, Lips of a Man 3.83 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1999 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Notre quelque part by Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Goodreads Author), Sika Fakambi (Translator) 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	South of South: An Anthology Devoted to the Humanity and Narrative of Migration by Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Niki Aguirre really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Nii Ayikwei rated a book it was amazing Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War by Howard W. French	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Nii Ayikwei Parkes (?)

“Kayo leaned forward now, closing the distance between himself and the hunter. His mind was racing. 'So, the story you just told us. Is it true? Is that the story of Kofi Atta?'

The hunter sighed. 'That may be your story. I am not the one to tell you what is true. I am telling you a story. On this earth, we have to choose the story we tell, because it affects us - it affects how we live.”
― Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Tail of the Blue Bird

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Polls

Which book do you want to read for our Western Africa read in Sept/Oct 2019?

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna

11 votes, 25.0%

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

11 votes, 25.0%

On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe

8 votes, 18.2%

Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes

7 votes, 15.9%

The Little Peul by Mariama Barry

3 votes, 6.8%

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson

3 votes, 6.8%

Hope's Wristwatch by Tony Marinho

1 vote, 2.3%

44 total votes

4 comments

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Nii Ayikwei’s Quotes

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

tags: fear, hate, pain

3217 likes

“I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.”
― James Baldwin

903 likes

“Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.”
― Anais Nin

460 likes