Reading Jeanette is like embarking on a poetic body-heart-mind journey trusting that there will be a destination. Even if none surfaces, there’s so much pleasure in the reading process because of her style that defies form and traditional plot lines. Quantum physics is thrown in, and there’s great joy finding Newton and Einstein decoded on […]
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As The Crow Flies: the Red Earth. Veronique Tadjo
French and Côte d´Ivoire: Veronique Tadjo’s novella, As the Crow Flies, led me to her poetry book: Red Earth, first published in French as Laterite. The novella opens and ends like a long poem, is a love-betrayal and migration story, and at the heart of it are personal urban life affairs. But the search […]
Meet Prartho Sereno, the fantastic poet
Coming closer to Thanksgiving makes me think of Prartho Sereno’s imaginative and fascinating poetry book: Causing a Stir: The secret lives and loves of kitchen utensils. Food is involved, you see. And love. The wonderful poems are complemented by paintings, also done by Prartho. What I love about these poems is Prartho’s child-like grace, angelic and […]
The Needle Poems of Jennifer Grotz
I’m excited about introducing Jennifer Grotz, who is coming to read as part of The Raymond Carver Reading Series. A year ago I discovered her poetry book, Cusp, accidentally really, when I was in Bird Library randomly looking for interesting poetry books. I removed the book from the shelf and read a few poems and […]
Happy Times With Jackee B Batanda
I’m touring Cambridge, Massachusetts with my friend, Jackee Batanda, giggling on the streets and recalling when we first met in 2000 at FEMRITE–The Uganda Women Writers Association–where we both used to work. Aspiring writers. Eleven years down the road been quite a journey, full of delights and challenges. We feel miraculously pleasantly strange to be […]
Cape Verde with Corsino Fortes
One of the finest islands with great music–think Cesaria Evora–beautiful deep blue waters, and good food; go national and get the cachupa–hard corn mixed with dry beans topped with two sausages and fried eggs. That’s what you can have for breakfast and/or lunch. An orange on the side. Some vegetables. And oh, the tuna is […]
Pepetela, Ondjaki and Ana Paula Ribeiro Tavares
You realize we’re not done with Angola yet. I can’t help it. I love historical fiction. When it’s sprinkled with mythology and fantasy, so much the better. That’s partly the reason I’m enthralled by Angolan writing/writers. They’ve got their feet in the magic world yet they do not fail to deliver the weight of […]
José Eduardo Agualusa, remarkable Angolan writer
Now to my really favorite writer, North of Limpopo, South of Sahara, West of the Atlantic and East of Indian Ocean, José Eduardo Agualusa. I know it sounds like an exaggeration but there are many reasons to love this writer. His writing is fresh air in the real sense of the word. You only have […]
Mia Couto and Mozambique fiction
We’re in Mozambique, ladies and gentlemen. Portuguese speaking since 1400’s, since Vasco da Gama alighted there in 1498, and by 1505, Mozambique had fallen in the hands of Portuguese rule. So the first Coat of Arms was Portuguese, the second Portuguese, and the third revised Portuguese East Africa. There were at least four versions of […]
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MKB: Dear Nyakisa, Good news! "The Animals of My Earth...
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Nyakisa Beth: Will it be available in Uganda?...
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Wm Epes: Dr. Barya: Hope you are well. Enj...
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