Alex Smith
Amanze Akpuda
Amatoritsero Ede
Amitabh Mitra
Ando Yeva
Andrew Martin
Aryan Kaganof
Ben Williams
Bongani Madondo
Chielozona Eze
Chris Mann
Chukwu Eke
Chuma Nwokolo
Colleen Higgs
Colleen C. Cousins
Don Mattera
Elizabeth Pienaar
Elleke Boehmer
Emilia Ilieva
Fred Khumalo
Janice Golding
Lauri Kubuitsile
Lebogang Mashile
Manu Herbstein
Mark Espin
Molara Wood
Napo Masheane
Nduka Otiono
Nnorom Azuonye
Ola Awonubi
Petina Gappah
Sam Duerden
Sky Omoniyi
Toni Kan
Uzor M. Uzoatu
Valerie Tagwira
Vamba Sherif
Wumi Raji
Zukiswa Wanner
Credits:
Ntone Edjabe
Rudolf
Okonkwo
Tolu
Ogunlesi
Yomi
Ola
Molara Wood
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An Afternoon
with Derek Walcott
The Coalition of Resisters
The Challenge of Rose Francis
Mpalive Msiska
on Soyinka.
Oxford University Poetry Society
Chika Unigwe's Book Tour
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An Afternoon with Derek Walcott |
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Derek
Walcott authographing books at the University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Canada during a recent visit as Guest Writer
Photo credit: Nduka
Otiono |
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It does not take long in the presence of Derek Walcott, 77, West
Indian poet, dramatist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1992, to realize why some of his fans fondly call him the Homer
of St Lucia. He commands such a magisterial literary presence
that you are inclined to thinking of him in terms of the classical
heights of Homer, the Greek poet whose epic Walcott re-invented
as "Homeros" in tribute.
At "An Afternoon With Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott"
on Friday, September 28, 2007, at the University of Alberta, Edmonton,
Canada, the artist justified the honours which have crowned his
truly glorious career as a man of letters. The event was organized
by the Caribbean and African Diasporic Initiatives and the Canadian
Literature Centre/Centre de Littérature Canadienne at the
University, with Malinda Smith and Stephen Slemon respectively
as standard bearers.
Born in the island of St Lucia, Walcott shuttles between his
beloved brith place in the Caribbeans, Greenwhich Village, New
York where he lives when he is in the US, and Boston where he
teaches at the University of Boston. At Alberta for the reading,
the water-colorist was perhaps at his witty best before an auditorium
filled to capacity, with many barely finding a standing room.
After a stellar performance reading his poems, in answer to a
question he said among others, "Poets are not by instinct
heroes; they are by instinct cowards." It was more like W.H
Auden saying that poetry changes nothing! Walcott, however, acknowledged
a poet's duty as a recorder of injustice and his "luck to
be able to articulate it." An appreciation of his performance
that evening was evident not just in the standing ovation that
greeted him but in the long queue of guests who sought his autograph.
Nduka
Otiono
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The
Coalition of Resisters |
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Writers,
Lee Swenson, Nduka Otiono and Robert Hass
Photo credit: Nduka
Otiono |
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While US
President George Bush forged his Coalition of the Willing and the
guns and bombs boomed in Iraq, in the San Francisco area of the
United States of America, a group of writers, war veterans and anti-war
campaigners meet under a coalition of resisiters. Among them is
Lee Swenson (left), a maverick persona and a moving repository of
knowledge about war, writers, history and Silicon Valley. Within
minutes of sitting with him, you are taken on an intellectual excursion
around the lives of the notables in the San Francisco area, including
Francis Copola of The God Father fame, Maxine Hong Kingston
and Robert Hass (right in the picture), former poet laureate of
the US, professor of English at University of California, Berkeley,
co-editor of The Addison Street Anthology: Berkeley's Poetry
Walk and the 2007 winner of the National Book Award in poetry, for
Time and Materials.
On this occasion, Hass, a poet with a cult personality in the area
akin to Allen Ginsberg, is reading in an auditorium in the De Young
Museum at Golden Gate Park in the foggy city. The expansive venue
is unusually filled to capacity with guests for a poetry event,
and on a night when a musical concert is taking place in the same
complex. As the blurb of the anthology published by Malcolm Margolin's
unique publishing outfit, Heyday Books, states, Hass is "known
for his signature voice full of poetic musicality and political
progressiveness." But what seems to draw the crowd more are
his witty poems and a remarkable storytelling skill. True to his
reputation, this evening he captivates the audience with excellent
readings and recollections of the life and art of such distinguished
writers as Czeslaw Milosz, the Nobel laureate for Literature and
a great friend of Hass'. As you listen to the poet who cuts the
picture of a perfect gentleman, you realise how his mantra as US
Poet laureate between 1995 and 1997 was "imagination makes
communities."
Nduka
Otiono |
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The Challenge of Rose
Francis |
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Rose
Francis |
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When a new
African publisher has the confidence to re-issue poetry forged in
the conflicts of South Africa, as African Perspectives
will be doing with the work of Don Mattera, convinced of
its vintage value and continuing importance, we at
take notice. We become even more interested if that publisher knows
all about the ambiguities of the contemporary African identity and
still feels able “to project with concerted effort Africa’s
self identity, self esteem, achievement and contributions,”
and also “assist in reversing Afro pessimism within our society.”
We know we are in the same business with that publisher.
Rose Francis feels prepared for the challenge of
publishing Africa. She should be. Rose Francis Communications, her
previous business, was indeed one of the first black-owned communications
consultancies in South Africa. She wants to “create a business
driven by consumer demand as South Africans slowly begin to take
pride in their personal liberation.” The challenge of Rose
Francis is our challenge. |
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Mpalive Msiska on
Soyinka |
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There was a book launch
in London recently of a new work by the Malawian scholar and poet,
Mpalive Msiska. Postcolonial Identity of Wole Soyinka attempts to
direct Soyinka studies to his ideas on a recovered African tradition
and identity as being engaged in transformative or redemptive roles
in the globalised African contemporary. The author is a Senior Lecturer
at Birbeck College, University of London. Postcolonial Identity
is published by Rodopi in their Series, ‘Cross/Culture –
Readings in the Post/Colonial Literatures in English’. The
book organises its enquiry under the subject heads ‘Myth,
History and Postcolonial Modernity,’ ‘Tradition and
Modernity,’ ‘The Banality of Postcolonial Power,’
‘The Abyss of Postcolonial formation,’ and ‘Resources
for Redemption.’ Mpalive-Hagson has previously published Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Critical Guide (2007), Wole
Soyinka (in the ‘Writers and Their Works’ Series, 1998)
and Writing and Africa (1997) among other works. |
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Mpalive
Msiska's new book on Wole Soyinka |
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The Oxford University
Poetry Society |
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Back
row, standing: Shirley Lee, Hannah Thompson, Corinne Sawers,
Matthew Evans (at the back), Betina Ip, Rachel Piercey, Christopher
Thursten and Diana Fu; Front row, sitting: Tony Harris, Edwin
Gaader (Live Events Manager, OUPS), Afam Akeh (editor, AW),
Chloe Stopa-Hunt (President, OUPS) and Alexander Christofi (Treasurer,
OUPS) |
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Three
OUPS Poems |
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Oxford has certainly had its share of poets, from the outrageous
(John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester – England’s bawdiest
bard – attended Wadham College, and Percy Bysshe Shelley,
was infamously expelled for atheism in 1811) to the eminently
respectable, including nine poets laureate. Undergraduate
writing has not always been a priority, however: in the 1920s,
the student poetry society remained “unofficial”
and unregistered with the proctors (university police), despite
the fact that some of its members were to go on to great things
– among them, the poet and essayist, W. H. Auden. The
society’s renaissance came in the wake of the Second
World War: in 1946 it was officially re-founded by Martin
Starkie, the actor, playwright, producer and director, who
was then an undergraduate at Exeter College. Oxford University
Poetry Society has never looked back!
In the early years, a famous participant
in the society’s activities was the Welsh poet, Dylan
Thomas, at that time living in a summer-house in the grounds
of Magdalen College, whose “don-draped greenery”
– as he described it in an unpublished poem –
is little altered today. His daughter, Aeronwy Thomas, joined
Martin Starkie and a host of members past and present at the
society’s sixtieth anniversary celebrations in October
2006, where she read some of Thomas’s best-loved verse
and Mr Starkie gave a vivid rendition of extracts from his
beloved Canterbury Tales.
The society has always attracted high-calibre
readers and speakers: the Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid, and
the poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West (twice winner of
the Hawthornden Prize) were among the early visitors, while
in the past two years a host of famous names have entertained
the society’s members, including the poet laureate Andrew
Motion, Craig Raine, Paul Muldoon and Matthew Sweeney. In
addition to hearing memorable renditions of some of the best
of twentieth and twenty-first century poetry, readings offer
a valuable opportunity for young writers to put pertinent
enquiries to the great and the good: Anne Stevenson has answered
questions on life-writing, and recently Fiona Sampson, the
editor of Poetry Review, discussed the process of selecting
a poem for publication. 2008 will see a visit by Forward Prize
winner, Daljit Nagra, along with a diverse selection of other
poets: absolutely anyone is welcome to get in touch with the
society and to attend our events; in keeping with the society’s
traditions, they are not restricted to members of the university.
Our activities don’t stop at listening
– most of our members are keen writers too. Oxford’s
dynamic young talents come together every Wednesday evening
– usually, and perhaps unsurprisingly, in a pub: liquid
refreshment apparently helps to quell the nerves – to
workshop their own poems and develop their writing through
amicable constructive criticism. Success has not been slow
in coming for some of our members: 2007 will see the publication
by Clutag Press of Flood, a long poem by Paul Abbott, who
won the Newdigate Prize during his first year at Oxford; other
current members have achieved success in the Foyle Young Poets
of the Year Award, the Christopher Tower Poetry Prize, the
London Metropolitan University Poetry Prize, the Ledbury Poetry
Competition and the Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation.
Oxford University Poetry Society also administers
two competitions of its own: the long-running Martin Starkie
Prize, and a new competition in declamation, or the speaking
of poetry (also sponsored by Mr Starkie, who, along with Magdalen
don Dr Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, is judging the final), which
is being held for the first time in Michaelmas term 2007 and
has been dubbed “the Pop-Idol of Verse-Reading”.
The same term has seen the inaugural issue of the society’s
own magazine, Ash, which – taking its title
from Leonard Cohen’s perceptive comment that “Poetry
is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well,
poetry is just the ash” – aims to showcase the
best student poetry in Oxford, to review the society’s
events and to offer writing exercises, such as responding
to a painting, designed to break down the most stubborn writer’s
block.
Additionally, this year’s committee
is keen to bring in more poets for focused workshopping sessions
with our undergraduate members. We got off to a rousing start,
one chilly October night, with a visit from Afam Akeh, editor
of African Writing, who combined insightful and sensitive
critiques of the participants’ poems – a diverse
collection, ranging from pithy to baroque – with the
opportunity to hear him read from his own work, including
a moving extract from his forthcoming second collection, Letter
Home. Lively debate ensued when a variety of controversial
topics were raised by our poetic offerings, including the
old rhyme/free verse debate and whether poetry is, can, or
should be political. Afam also gave us some helpful pointers
concerning the practicalities of establishing a poetic career,
a question which is perhaps too often neglected in workshop
situations focussing exclusively on matters of craft or, indeed,
“inspiration”. We can all benefit from a timely
reminder that it’s a poet-eat-poet world out there!
Chloe Stopa-Hunt
Chloe is an undergraduate at New College,
Oxford, and president of Oxford University Poetry Society.
She has twice been a Foyle Young Poet of the Year, and her
poems have been published in Oxford Poetry
and Agenda Broadsheet 7.
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Chika Unigwe's Book
Tour |
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Kachifo
limited, publishers of Farafina litmag organised the recent
Nigerian book tour by novelist Chika Unigwe. She toured with the
English translation of her first novel, The Phoenix. It
was previously published in Dutch as De Feniks. Jonathan
Cape are publishing her second novel, Fata Morgana. Her
short stories are widely published online and she has been shortlisted
for the Caine Prize for African Writing. Her tour involved book
signings in locations around Lagos. |
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