tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130376302012-01-12T11:50:14.885-06:00Thoughts on reading, reviewing, critiquing, considering African poetry; playing with poetry from across the Continent; engaging poets working in Africa and abroad; and generally just getting thoughts and knee-jerk reactions into a format that might encourage dialogue. Hopefully fruitful dialogue...mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-27276026475693726752012-01-12T11:49:00.001-06:002012-01-12T11:50:14.895-06:00

I've floated this out on Facebook but figured it ought to be made "official": african poetry review (usa) would like to send you an African poetry postcard, just like the one to the right here. Pretty slick little picture and, on the reverse, a few of our favorite lines and probably a few colorful doodles by yours truly. We'll ship anywhere!! Hell, it's a postcard; even I can afford that. What

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-86376796339776255542011-11-23T09:10:00.000-06:002011-11-23T09:10:07.244-06:00

Let's start first with the verse... "Back in the Benighted Kingdom" I'm sorry to see my mosquito bumps fade: the love bites of a continent, marks of its hot embrace. If anything is dark it's this damp island with its sluggish days, its quieter, subtler ways of drawing blood.  By Isobel Dixon [author's website]From A Fold in the MapDixon's turn in the poem above is a deft one: conjuring the

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-36463337244047014782011-04-07T10:44:00.006-05:002011-04-07T14:26:11.971-05:00

As I noted in an earlier similar post, the notion of "recent" is always a relative term... Though I've drifted away from the blog a bit over the last... year or more (!!) -- spending much more time on our Facebook page (more on that to come shortly) --  I have continued to search for, track, and bookmark whatever reviews of African poetry collections I can find online. To wit, a small sampling.

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-39758221906569076992010-02-25T05:48:00.002-06:002010-02-25T05:51:19.999-06:00

The Kenya-based journal Kwani? just sent out a call for poetry submissions for it's sixth issue, around the theme "The Kenya I Know." Here's the call: Following multiple conversations on "The Kenya We Want," and our recent "The Kenya I Live In" short story competition, Kwani Trust would like to invite writers to submit poems that explore the multiple realities we live in, the moments that define

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-21665670731830415102010-02-22T06:59:00.010-06:002010-02-22T08:10:55.054-06:00

The poet and novelist Chris Abani has given at least two TED talks which are, I think, worth watching. Little directly related to poetry in either -- though he concludes both with a reading/recitation (of a poem by Lucille Clifton in one and Yusef Komunkakaa in the other) -- but if we take all the world to be the stuff of poetry, then "relevance" is not an issue for us here... These are

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-55344807179844735772010-02-15T06:52:00.002-06:002010-02-15T07:01:13.990-06:00

Indeed! Amazing as it is, some small segment of the poetry community of the Continent actually broke into a national broadcast with -- gasp!! -- poetry (instead of... oh, something like bringing Wole Soyinka on to talk about the crisis in the Niger Delta). As part of its Emerging Cultural Voices from Africa series, National Public Radio's Morning Edition presented a piece on A Voice for South

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-20236873965162923952010-02-12T14:26:00.005-06:002010-02-13T13:34:35.462-06:00

Way back on December 7, 2003, the Sierra Leonean poet and novelist Syl Cheney-Coker appeared on CBC Radio One's Writers & Company with Eleanor Wachtel. I managed to download and save the audio a few years ago; good thing too, as it's no longer available on the CBC website. You can stream it by clicking on the play button below. Cheney-Coker is, to my thinking, one of the great poets of the

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-82308327289614900632010-02-12T12:58:00.004-06:002010-02-12T15:41:38.273-06:00

There is an announcement on the Book SA website that the deadline for the inaugural Sol Plaatje Poetry Award has been extended to 1 March 2010 (original deadline appears to have been 31 January 2010). Information on the award, eligibility guidelines, and details on how to submit are all in the posting. The real exciting aspect of the prize? The award will be given "for poetry in all 11 South

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-57704388851320900162010-02-02T08:56:00.006-06:002010-02-02T09:33:26.338-06:00

For the second year in a row, Ben Okri has fed out a poem via his Twitter account.This year it's a poem titled "As clouds pass above our heads..." and can be read in full on the Ebury Publishing blog.Last year's "I sing a new freedom" apparently created quite the buzz -- though surely for the novelty of it all more than anything else.In both instances, though, very unlike the poetry collected in

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-34031822600544712382010-02-01T07:19:00.003-06:002010-02-01T07:35:06.744-06:00

I'm thrilled to announce the launch of a new feature on the african poetry review's Facebook fan page: the Facebook-featured Poets for Fans.Sarah Frost (South Africa) and Uche Nduka (Nigeria/USA) have generously contributed some of their poems just for the Facebook fans of apr (usa)!!We'll be adding poems over the coming weeks and months, ad infinitum. While you're visiting be sure to read and

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-52368687784894533852010-01-31T12:53:00.010-06:002011-11-06T15:07:09.917-06:00

Well, recent is always a relative term, no? Over the last year or so I've tried to track and bookmark reviews of works of African poetry that might be of interest to readers. What follows is just that which has come relatively easy to me. I'm sure there's much more out there but you have to start somewhere, even if you're reduced to far too much self-citation. That's how I justify what follows.

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-40388237538587913812010-01-21T22:07:00.004-06:002010-01-21T22:44:03.981-06:00

Others? It's not entirely clear. Photographers, yes. But non-South Africans? Well... there's no exclusionary text; nothing defining scope of "eligible" contributors at all. So tell you what, let's not overthink this.Incwadi: A Journal of South African poetry and photography has just put out its call for submissions for the Fall 2010 issue. You can find more details on the About Incwadi page (

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-8515271773464672822010-01-19T22:13:00.003-06:002010-01-19T23:17:17.182-06:00

Thanks to the Literary Saloon -- the daily blog of the complete review -- for bringing my attention to Emmanuel Ssejjengo's piece in Uganda's The New Vision summing up the year in books, "Poetry Ruled".As is noted in the Saloon piece -- and in references to Ssejjengo's piece elsewhere on the web -- the final verdict is less than happy: "In volumes, 2009 was good. In quality, it was terrible."

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-40688669031241548802009-12-28T07:14:00.014-06:002011-11-06T15:09:07.715-06:00

We learned on Saturday evening of the passing of the South African poet and activist Dennis Brutus. Activist Dennis Brutus dies (News24, South Africa) An activist until the end (News24, South Africa) Brutus remembered as an activist who bridged divides (The Star, South Africa) Dennis Brutus, Poet, Dies at 85 (New York Times) Dennis Vincent Brutus, 1924-2009 (MR Zine) In Memoriam: Activist Poet

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-14432331594942855712009-12-02T08:48:00.002-06:002009-12-02T08:59:39.173-06:00

I wasn't at all familiar with the poetry of Don Maclennan prior to my trip to South Africa (and, in particular, before my time in Grahamstown, the home of Rhodes University). And truth be told, I know little more now; though I am also sure that that will change over time (and in subsequent visits).But this is just the sort of thing I love to see and want to support:Rhodes University is putting

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-16066317658424088852009-10-09T15:43:00.002-05:002009-10-09T18:39:39.774-05:00

Elizabeth Sneddon TheatreUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College CampusDay 5 of Poetry Africa 2009 (Friday, October 9)8:14 pm -- Too late, too late… In the middle of Chigo Gondwe's presentation. And I start spinning off on my own, as she riffs and sings and cajoles and exhorts…If this is the present of poetry, let alone the future, poetry books are dead. Audio is close to finished too --

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-16316392900329778922009-10-09T11:41:00.010-05:002009-12-02T05:24:37.752-06:00

There haven't been many, but there have been a few.At the first night of the Poetry Africa performances I was able to attend I found a book by Robert Berold, Rain Across a Paper Field -- at deep discount. Liesl Jobson, a South African poet who has been tremendously helpful to me in the lead up to this trip, had earlier mentioned Berold as a poet and publisher worth knowing in Grahamstown (my next

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-90733948977140160792009-10-08T15:41:00.008-05:002009-10-09T05:56:04.320-05:00

Right into the readings tonight; no mucking about with book launches or ancillary events.Elizabeth Sneddon TheatreUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College CampusDay 4 of Poetry Africa 2009 (Thursday, October 8)Running a little behind and literally running up the hill to the UKZN campus. Made it in time, though, as the program is starting late. Not sure that I want to be doing this -- being

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-60452357053444354802009-10-07T17:00:00.006-05:002009-10-09T05:56:29.600-05:00

Made it to Durban this afternoon after a 24 hour journey from Wisconsin to Gauteng and an overnight in Johannesburg. Trip on the whole was smooth, though so ragged -- my sleeping at least -- that I spent my time away from anything that required or would have beggared much thought. So it was movies and television shows on the little screens on the headrest in front of me, dozing on and off, and

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-64988318511023230692009-10-01T19:05:00.001-05:002009-10-01T19:05:46.100-05:00

Next week I leave the cozy (and rapidly cooling) confines of Madison, Wisconsin, hop on a plane for Detroit, and about a day later touch down in Johannesburg and start a two week visit to South Africa.Quickly off to Durban for Poetry Africa 2009 (which starts Monday, October 5 -- so I'll catch up to it a few days in, on the evening of the 7th). On the tail end of the trip I'll be headed to Groot

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-84714779572535993902009-09-12T06:22:00.002-05:002009-09-12T07:15:37.384-05:00

One of the great pleasures of conferences and festivals and other similar gatherings, even when light on poetry offerings, is the chance to meet and talk with poets and critics. And with the world of "African poetry" being as relatively small and convivial as it is, meeting working poets is not difficult.Such was the case earlier this year at the African Literature Association's conference: light

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-61099244659413150582009-09-11T09:29:00.010-05:002010-02-08T06:09:52.783-06:00

Last Friday's email blast from NEXT, the still relatively new Nigerian daily paper, announced "Niyi Osundare writes for us on Sunday / Read his poems every first Sunday of the month in The Lagos Review". And here it is, "September". It's good to see Osundare publishing in the papers again (his collection, Songs of the Season, came out of an earlier stint with The Nigerian Tribune). The poem

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-60944452023177533742009-08-17T19:17:00.006-05:002010-02-15T16:03:09.124-06:00

Kudos to the complete review -- one of the great literary blogs to my thinking if for no other reason than the breadth of its daily coverage -- for its 17 August 2009 posting highlighting Onukwube Ofoelue's remembrance of Christopher Okigbo in Nigeria's Daily Sun. It's more an overview of his life than anything else, only lightly touching on his poetry. But any thoughtful consideration of poetry

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-68499634339042215222009-06-02T07:57:00.003-05:002009-06-26T14:39:45.362-05:00

We learned last week of the passing of the Gambian doctor and poet, Lenrie Peters. Online coverage has been sparse: a brief note in Gambia's Daily Observer (and subsequent obituary notice) as well as a note on the Senegambia News pages. Sad, but not surprising.I first encountered Peters' work in graduate school. It was, as with much else in graduate school, read in one of those frenzies, plowing

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-19918337149984066062009-04-16T23:05:00.002-05:002009-04-16T23:23:23.868-05:00

8:14 – Arrived late and was a little fearful that I would be missing some of the poets, but as these things tend to go, there’s a late start… I recognize few of the names on the program so this should be a welcome addition. And it will be interesting to see how each channels the theme of the evening In Memoriam: Aimé Césaire.8:16 – The poet & professor – aren’t they all? – Major Jackson begins

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-15116672301241331882009-04-16T09:42:00.006-05:002009-04-16T11:46:26.788-05:00

In Burlington, Vermont at the 2009 ALA Conference. Another packed conference. I got in yesterday afternoon but missed Soyinka's keynote, which is disappointing.Taking a quick look at the program, though, I have to say I'm yet again disappointed by the presence (or rather lack) of poetry. Not the conveners' fault. We're not doing our part to propose papers and panels with a focus on poetry. Novels

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-4372173227901869272009-03-06T08:26:00.005-06:002010-02-14T11:13:43.195-06:00

In response to my earlier posting -- print and online publishers of poetry; of african poetry? -- Tolu Ogunlesi, one of our readers (and a working poet in his own right) sent a thoughtful response along with some specific suggestions that deserve a wider audience. Ogunlesi writes: Just came across this post on your blog, and thought I should share some of my personal experience. In my opinion,

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-30889166384558766762009-03-01T07:55:00.004-06:002009-03-01T10:45:18.304-06:00

So, what is to be done? Well, here's the situation:I have received a large number of really excellent work -- from across the Continent -- to consider for The Best African Poetry 2009. But I'm greedy. I want more. And from more places.So, once again I'm extending the deadline. And for good or ill, it's an open deadline. At some point I'll shut it down. I will try to give ample warning and send

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-27520508210094142762009-03-01T06:22:00.007-06:002009-03-06T09:24:38.191-06:00

A reader sent me a request that I'm afraid I wasn't able to answer very well -- and around an issue that has been one of my challenges in combing out The Best African Poetry 2009: who are some reputable publishers -- both print and online -- of poetry, of individual poems and cycles (not collections)?So we're side-stepping book publishers for the moment and looking for magazines and (little)

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-18633631250150121872009-02-19T08:24:00.003-06:002009-02-19T08:34:23.411-06:00

I received the following call for contributions a few days ago:Illuminations: An International Magazine for Contemporary Writing has a long-standing interest in African writing. For next year's issue (due out in July 2009) we would like to include a special section featuring writing from Zimbabwe. The magazine is predominantly dedicated to poetry but a typical issue also features one prose

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-89426282482877133262009-02-03T08:00:00.002-06:002009-02-03T15:16:29.091-06:00

I have extended the deadline to submit nominations for the Best African Poetry 2009 collection: to 18 February 2009. Please read the initial announcement for more complete details on eligibility and rationale.My thanks to all who have sent in nominations to date -- both of their own work and that of others -- and do please spread the word among friends and colleagues and invite them to send in

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-23338839127057667812009-01-23T07:50:00.004-06:002009-02-05T08:59:23.288-06:00

I got some very pleasant news towards the end of last year: two new collections were released by two poets I consider some of the strongest voices writing today: Syl Cheney-Coker (Sierra Leone) and Niyi Osundare (Nigeria). Not old lions, they're no spring chickens either; and while they've each misfired at times, I am quick to scoop up any of their work that I can.What makes it all particularly

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-39347831553806376032009-01-13T07:33:00.002-06:002009-01-13T07:42:29.707-06:00

There must be a better way, and there is certainly more out there than is dreamed of in the YouTube-iverse, but in hopes of broadcasting to a wider audience (I am becoming, I feel, something of an evangelist), I've put together an African poetry channel on YouTube.It will be slow going, for sure, and I still have to figure out the best way to capitalize on what YouTube offers, but as I'm working

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-29392257108338158902008-12-12T09:10:00.013-06:002009-03-01T21:01:12.875-06:00

Listen to Chinua Achebe on Cross-Cultural Poetics (from the University of Pennsylvania).It is good to hear -- and not at all surprising (to me) -- to see the widely embraced doyen of African literature, Chinua Achebe, focusing on his poetry as he travels and reads over these last few years. There are relatively few poems, and I do wish that we could read more, and read more recent work.But I will

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-27125373833995370772008-12-09T16:40:00.010-06:002009-03-01T07:54:02.556-06:00

It's about time that there was something akin to The Best American Poetry Series for the Continent. I can't make any claim to this being the proper vehicle for such an endeavor, but I think it's high time someone tried. So we're going to give it a go.With your help!So here are the "rules":Please submit no more than five (5) different poems. They can all be by a single author, all by different

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-83033504126275892702008-11-20T16:42:00.003-06:002008-11-21T07:52:51.324-06:00

Well, I've been miserable about updating the pages here. Lots of notes to catch up on and links to add. And plenty to discuss.In the meantime, though, and as a way of both spreading the word/s and keeping myself reading, the African Poetry Review (USA) has set up shop on Twitter. I'll be feeding lines, stanzas, even entire poems when I get the chance.Special commendation to Poetry International

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-17029056293762298242008-05-22T09:00:00.003-05:002008-11-21T07:53:01.926-06:00

People love lions. Or so it seems.Of the folks who have eventually found their way to this site, 17 of them have been searching for "lion" or some search string that included the word in it. That's as many visits -- seventeen -- as have been accounted for by the search string "african poetry".Now, one could discuss the broader implications, the raw and mistaken equation of Africa with its

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-49979167328407696742008-05-19T07:15:00.007-05:002011-04-07T14:27:40.624-05:00

Well, a couple reviews truth be told. I just had a review of The Defence of Lawino -- Taban lo Liyong's translation of Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino -- published in Research in African Literatures (vol 39 no 2 summer 2008: 156-8). If you read my review you'll see that I'm not a big fan. A little more ambiguous is Simon Lewis's review published by the H-Net List for African Literature and Cinema

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-65284572475632396352008-04-26T13:39:00.006-05:002008-11-21T07:54:05.987-06:00

One of the great delights of these conferences has always been walking away (or flying -- or in this instance driving off) with a healthy stack of books. Granted, sometimes the enthusiasm prematurely and the books gather dust on the shelves. But other times I dive right in.This year, it seems, I lie somewhere in between -- too many meetings and work to do, both at the conference and at home, to

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-67309748040739288852008-04-25T16:30:00.004-05:002008-11-21T07:53:55.602-06:00

A short trek from the dorm to a small local bookshop -- New Copperfield's Book Service -- on Macomb's courthouse square (in the beginnings of slight spring thunderstorm). A slight delay as the waters, audience, and authors gather...4:32 pm -- Well, it's a bit more than a slight storm...4:38 pm -- Tanure Ojaide begins. His focus in recent years has been on the environment and ecology of the Niger

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-80471188197042375922008-04-24T14:05:00.007-05:002008-11-21T07:55:05.799-06:00

2:05 pm -- Well, not surprising as these things go, late starting and some confusion with the room (as the schedule stands we are sharing with another panel). Ah, but it's the ALA... And slowly the poets trickle in Tanure Ojaide, Chimalum Nwankwo, Abenia Busia, Naana Banyiwa Horne...2:12 pm -- Niyi Osudare shows up. A long time since I've seen him and I'm thrilled to see he's hee and will be

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-21783381262812500922008-04-24T07:15:00.005-05:002008-11-21T07:55:36.280-06:00

Well, I'm here at the annual conference of the African Literature Association and it occurred to me that this is an excellent opportunity to report on the place of poetry in this little slice of the academic field.There is, on initial (and admittedly cursory) review of the program, stunningly little poetry. Certainly few panels devoted exclusively to poetry. Poets are, of course, rife at the

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-90340908612864644352007-10-05T08:17:00.001-05:002008-11-21T07:55:47.151-06:00

I recently had occasion to reflect on what I know of "emerging" African poets -- that is, younger poets, in their 20s and 30s, who are writing, performing, and publishing across the continent.And I don't know much.In fits and starts I intend to begin investigating, doing bibliographic research, generally finding out what I can find out. But a little help would be much appreciated.Who are some of

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-42794920637634297032007-08-25T09:53:00.003-05:002008-12-09T17:25:23.036-06:00

I hope to revive the blog shortly, with links to additional content, stories, and assorted and sundry other tidbits from the web. There is lots out there, including -- as I discovered not too long ago -- video clips of poets reading their work on YouTube (among them Kofi Anyidoho and Syl Cheney-Coker), which I hope to more systematically track down and post links to.In the meantime, I wanted to

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13037630.post-1176521689028993522007-04-13T21:16:00.001-05:002008-11-21T07:56:10.590-06:00

This is more a bibliographic exercise than anything else, in no small part because it has been so long since I've read the work, but let's consider, for a moment, Achebe's Collected Poems.When it came out in 2004 I was quite excited. I'd quote thoroughly -- and somewhat to my surprise I must admit -- enjoyed his only other collection to date, Beware, Soul Brother (as an aside, I find the poem "

mark l lillelehthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16172639665290272629noreply@blogger.com0