Because it is Remembrance Day, also known as Veterans Day, Poppy Day or Armistice Day, I’m not going to school but will take a moment of silence to remember all those who have died in the line of duty. I run to my hero, Thomas Sankara, perhaps the only military fellow I recognize as being […]
About MKB
Mildred Kiconco Barya is a North Carolina-based writer, educator, and poet of East African descent. She teaches and lectures globally, and is the author of four full-length poetry collections, most recently "The Animals of My Earth School" released by Terrapin Books, 2023. Her prose, hybrids, and poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Joyland, The Cincinnati Review, Tin House, New England Review, and elsewhere. She’s now working on a collection of creative nonfiction, and her essay, “Being Here in This Body”, won the 2020 Linda Flowers Literary Award and was published in the North Carolina Literary Review. She serves on the boards of African Writers Trust, Story Parlor, and coordinates the Poetrio Reading events at Malaprop’s Independent Bookstore/Café. She blogs here: www.mildredbarya.com
Poems of Luke: The Sun Whispers, Wait
When I opened The Sun Whispers, Wait, a collection of poems from Luke, aka Joseph A Brown, I was glad that I read the introduction and discovered that October 18th is a significant day: Luke, the Evangelist, is honored within the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, and it also happens to be the birthday of Luke’s […]
Messages Left Behind, a collection of poems
A good poem is as large as a novel. Consider this poem from Messages Left Behind, by Lupenga Mphande, published in 2011 by Brown Turtle Press. How Long She Waited For You Every night She came out And sat on the veranda, facing south Longing for your return. You went away many years ago, […]
Call for Poetry–African poets
Good news for African poets: The submission period for the Book Prize kicked off September 15 and will run until November 15, 2012. It costs nothing to enter! To read how to submit to the prize, click here (http://africanpoetrybf.unl.edu/?page_id=21) or follow the guidelines below: * Eligibility: The Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets will only accept “first […]
The case of the missing mailbox et cetera.
In my previous blog I mentioned a few things about my apartment that were still pending, before it could be friendly and therefore more habitable. When you think about it, all that’s missing should have been provided the moment I was given the key and taken on an inventory tour by the leasing agent. But […]
Things get better, then terrible
Just yesterday—Wednesday the 29th—my life was gingered. In my fiction section on Tuesday, we looked at how a local scene, theme or description can be emotionally powerful to resonate at a global level; the connection between the national and universal appeal, why some works hit the global canon, and we talked about food. Drinks. How […]
Birmingham Postcard
I’ve made one week in this discerning city, and it’s been fantastic. Before I showed up I didn’t know it was called the discerning city. In fact, am not even sure everybody knows that’s what it is, but when Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA) offered me a job teaching creative writing, I emailed my […]
Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals: Yvonne Vera
My first time to read Yvonne Vera, about 14 years ago, I wished I had written most of her novels and short stories. One particular story that stood out was, Why Don’t You Carve other Animals. Lately I’ve been thinking about that story, rereading, and still wishing that I had written it. I first saw […]
“Hope, thin-bodied, is bent, never broken.” The Katrina poems by Niyi Osundare
Niyi Osundare, a professor at the University of New Orleans, managed to hide in the attic with his wife when Katrina struck. For more than 24 hours they waited for rescue, the waters rising, swallowing up everything, reaching their feet… All along, the couple calling 911. Around 2.30 in the night they got a […]
Niyi Osundare and Earth poems
Besides Jack Mapanje, we had Niyi Osundare, whom we loved because of his allegory, his closeness to Earth, how so attached he was to land. He reminded us of simple pleasures based on things you can touch and feel: the harvest of yams, peeling, cooking, pounding, and savoring the yam. We liked the sexual images […]
-
MKB: Thank you so much! I would love to read yours too ...
-
Brenda C Wilson: Congratulations! I hope to get a chance to read yo...
-
Kwasi opoku: Why did Nana usually say that Adjoa did not know t...
-
-
Follow @midibarya on Twitter
