Call for Papers: Reading Contemporary African Poetry, 01/04

Recent appraisals of African writing have not paid adequate attention to poetry as a genre. This creates a space for an urgent critical intervention. Essays intended for an
international audience are therefore solicited for inclusion in a collection of essays tentatively entitled Reading
Contemporary African Poetry. The book is to bring together innovative but readable explorations of recent African
poetry of English expression.

The editor welcomes well-researched essays aimed at
(re)reading established and emergent African poets and
poetic traditions. Contributors are at liberty to explore any aspect of recent African poetry, including excavations of indigenous forms and conventions, national and/regional trends and traditions, exilic poetry, prison poetry,
generational mapping, (en)gendered concerns, inter-textual concerns, contested canons, representation of dictatorships, formal subversions, the oral/written interface,
post-apartheid writing, defence and promotion of human
rights, self-inscription and the censored imagination.

Submissions should be between fifteen and twenty-five pages, although longer contributions will be accepted in
exceptional circumstances. Contributors are encouraged but not necessarily bound to adopt the MLA format in preparing their essays, and submissions can initially be made either electronically or in two hard copies. Even though the
deadline for submissions is January 30, 2004, the editor welcomes early submissions and enquiries.

All contributions should be sent to:

Dr. Oyeniyi Okunoye,
Department of English,
Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile Ife ,Nigeria.

Email: <ookunoye@oauife.edu.ng>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar