Literature

Two Young Liberian Poets in the Literary Spotlight

October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 admin2Liberia, Literature0 comment

A week or two ago I came across a headline that reads as followed: Young Liberian Poet Wins International Award in Literature. That young Liberian poet is Eduardo De Bosco. A young Liberian determined to burst out of the literary obscurity of Liberia. There is another young Liberian, Karn Jeremy Karn whose poetry chapbook has been accepted for publication by the editors of the New Generation of African Poets. This is certainly good news out of Liberia, a nation whose literary tradition goes as far back as the founding of…

That re-enchantment, in the mood of our age, now appears as a form of sentimentalism. In selecting Gluck, we are not just honouring a craft; we are privileging a literature whose job is to resist redemption or enchantment. It is not to save us, but to expose the fact (as her best collections, Ararat, Meadowlands, and The Wild Iris, remind us) that we are entirely at the mercy of our own passions; even a God would give up ordering them.

Artists & Reviews

Nobel to Gluck privileges a literature whose job is to resist redemption or enchantment

October 12, 2020 admin2Literature, Louise Gluck, Nobel0 comment

Written by Pratap Bhanu Mehta The Nobel Prize for Literature has an air of imperious idiosyncrasy about it. There is often an evident, willed parochialism about the history and human experience, genre and geography, from which great literature emerges. The Committee will often stretch its imagination to discover some new avant garde in Europe, a choice so niche and strange that it only underscores the Committee’s provincialism. There is always the philosophical canard that any citation carries: Great literature must have universal appeal or relate to themes of universal significance.…

Contemporary South African poet Koleka Putuma lovingly recounts memories of happiness and childhood innocence in her poem Black Joy, published in the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology (Vol.6) in 2017. The refreshing text makes a point to change the narrative of an African childhood, which is too often associated with pain, struggle and suffering as Putuma focuses on describing a time of peace, playfulness and family. “Isn’t it funny? / that when they ask about black childhood / all they are interested in is our pain / as if the joy-parts were accidental,” she writes. There is a common tendency to erase positivity when discussing the black experience, particularly in Africa. This poem acts as a symbol of all the good that simply never makes the literary cut.

Artists & Reviews

7 Poems That Perfectly Depict The Beauty Of The Black Experience

August 31, 2020 admin2Black Voices, Literature, poetry0 comment

BY SAGAL MOHAMMED From literary giants such as Audre Lorde to emerging Sudanese-American poet Dalia Elhassan, we travel the diaspora to discover poetry that shows the strength, resilience and poise of the black experience. Beauty, resilience, pain and identity are just a few common themes used to articulate the black experience in literature. For centuries, poetry has acted as an artistic release for the black community to express our authentic take on the world. Felicitously put by American writer Audre Lorde, “Poetry is the way we help give name to the…

Ms. Golakai and her co-winners, Gloria M. Odari, Parselelo Kantai, and Nnamdi Oguike will each receive a grant of €18,000 to allow them to take a year off to finish the Spectral novel. “Spectral is a terrifying examination of the tensions between freedom and social order. It will have speculative fiction themes: fantasy, science fiction, horror, magical realism. I love mixing science with fantastical and unknown,” Ms. Golakai said about the upcoming book.

Artists & Reviews

Liberian Writer Golakai Wins 2019 Morland Writing Scholarship

December 1, 2019 admin2Liberian, Literature, Writer0 comment

Liberian Author Hawa Jande Golakai has emerged as one of the four joint winners of the prestigious Morland Writing Scholarships for her work Spectral. Ms. Golakai, a speculative fiction author and a professional medical immunologist, is the first and only Liberian to win the Morland scholarship prize since its inception in 2013. Ms. Golakai and her co-winners, Gloria M. Odari, Parselelo Kantai, and Nnamdi Oguike will each receive a grant of €18,000 to allow them to take a year off to finish the Spectral novel. “Spectral is a…

She Would be King tells the early formation story of Liberia through historical fiction and magical realism. By exploring her own familiar history, Wayetu Moore’s debut novel offers a powerful exploration of Liberia’s relationship with colonization by freed American slaves. Moore’s literary contribution to the Liberian story is one that exudes an important brilliance that shows creativity, thought, and the true essence of Liberian Girl Magic.

Artists & Reviews

8 Books by Liberian Authors for Your Bookshelf

June 6, 2019 admin2Liberian Authors, Literature0 comment

by Karkay Adrienne Tingba Liberia has been telling its own stories for many generations – be it written or orally. The world, however, at some point collectively decided that story could not be told beyond the vulgar violence of civil war, poverty, disease, etc. Liberians on the other hand, know that their stories, even if about experiences in the war, carries deeper dimensions beyond the single story of barbarity to which they’ve been subjected; and we all know the dangers of a single story thanks to our Nigerian sister…

Artists & Reviews Tributes

Romeo Mark A Lifetime of Writing

February 7, 2017 admin2Althea Romeo-Mark, Literature0 comment

Born in Antigua, West Indies, Althea Romeo-Mark is an educator and writer who grew up in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. She has lived and taught in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, USA, Liberia (1976-1990), London, England (1990-1991), and in Switzerland since 1991. She earned a B.A. in English and Secondary Education from the University of the Virgin Islands and an M.A. in Modern American Literature from Kent State University, U.S.A. She also has a Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CETEFLA). She considers herself a citizen of…

Editor's Desk

Romeo-Mark’s If Only the Dust Would Settle: A Review

December 29, 2016January 2, 2017 adminAlthea Romeo-Mark, featured, Literature0 comment

By Valerie Knowles-Combie Althea Romeo-Mark’s collection of selected poems, If Only the Dust Would Settle, is the outgrowth of a series of poetry readings, commissioned by VITA (Verein fur Interkulturelle Treffpunkte und Anlaufstellen), an “umbrella organization that focuses on the integration of immigrants in Switzerland.” Romeo-Mark’s introduction explains that her poems are connected to a personal essay. “A Home with Endless Space” (7), a very significant construct that reinforces the meaning of “home” and “space” to the author’s primary theme. While her poems are divided into five sections, Romeo-Mark’s skillful…

Politics

A Nation That Cannot Produce Its Own Literature And Art Is A Lost Nation.

November 10, 2014November 11, 2014 adminLiberia, Literature, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

By Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley I read a very beautiful literary critical review in which the author, a scholar I truly respect said that I am “the most renowned African woman poet in the world today,” and you can disagree with him, I do not care, and this is not my point here. I am glad he thinks so, and I am honored he wrote that. But here is my point. If I am going to be the poet that I want to be before I die someday, I will…