WEALTH OF IDEAS

FEB 16 -- Bolo and Bullshit: The Other TS Eliot. Josh McKinney is the author of two award-winning books of poetry: Saunter , co-winner of the University of Georgia Press Poetry Series Open Competition in 2002, and The Novice Mourner , winner of the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize in 2005. He has also published two poetry chapbooks: Saunter (Primitive Publications, 1998) and Permutations of the Gallery (Pavement Saw Press, 1996), winner of the Pavement Saw Chapbook Contest. His poems have appeared in over one hundred national journals such as American Letters & Commentary, Boulevard, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, The Kenyon Review, New American Writing, Ploughshares, Poetry International, Prairie Schooner , and many others. His other awards include The Dickinson Poetry Prize and a Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative American Writing. He is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Joshua is currently a professor of English at California State University, Sacramen...

Once in a while I check traffic statistics to my blogs, particularly this one, which is my favorite. And on some days I wake up and there have already been 300 or 400+ visits, signalling a day that may end with over 800 or more. So then I check why such a surge and I click on the traffic source tab, which shows me the source websites and search engine key words. It's the latter I always find interesting, and worth blogging about. It shows what key words brought the traffic to my blog, gives me an idea of what people are looking for. In the past there have been key words like "the rise of Petina Gappah", "Marechera and Zimbabwean literature", "Interesting characters in African literature," and sometimes just "Emmanuel Sigauke". Today's list is longer, and here it is: black history month event ideas shona literature novels abigail george poetry alice laplante, method and madness  beautifull girl south african poem  black history...

Presents Zara Raab and Judy Wells Monday, January 23 at 7:30 PM 1719 25th Street at Crossroads for the Arts Host: Tim Kahl Zara Raab grew up along the North Coast of California. She attended Mills College and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) for college and graduate school. In her twenties, she lived in Paris, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., where she freelanced as an editor and writer, before returninto the West Coast to raise a family. Her grandparents’ grandparents’ settled in Humboldt and Mendocino counties in the 19th century, where they farmed, raised cattle and harvested tan oak for leather. Both her parents attended one-room schools; the one in Branscomb still stands. Early California is a subject of Swimming the Eel, just as the drama of family life informs her earlier work, The Book of Gretel. On Zara Raab’s Swimming the Eel “With abundant detail and in many voices the poet rounds out family history with sweetness, humor and presence, frequ...

This is my first encounter with Helon Habila's work. As he is increasingly becoming more important in the canonization of African literature (he won the Caine Prize in its second year and he recently anthologized African short stories with a respected publisher), I thought I should read him right away. And what better way to introduce myself to his work than through his recent novel, 'Oil on Water', which takes readers to the Niger Delta. I say take, as opposed to invite, because from the moment you hear the narrator's voice, you are taken on a voyage as if you were foreign to the Niger Delta, which, in my case, is true (never mind that earlier today, a lady outside the grocery store asked me if I was Nigerian and I told her what I was, and the lady with whom she was standing quickly said: "You are my neighbour and I said, "Are you Mozambican?" and she said, "No, I'm South African").  As I begin reading the novel, I am following a nar...

I am excited about the arrival in stores of this much-awaited award winner, "Running the Rift" by  Naomi Benaron.  Here is some information from Amazon: Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2012: No wonder Barbara Kingsolver awarded her 2010 Bellwether Prize, given biennially to an unpublished novel that confronts social issues, to Naomi Benaron's Running the Rift . In her coming-of-age story of young Tutsi Jean Patrick Nkuba, whose extraordinary gift for distance running lands him on the path to become his country's first medalist in track, one of history's most inconceivable chapters--the Rwandan genocide--becomes intensely personal. Out of a childhood marked by loss and overshadowed by mounting Hutu-Tutsi tensions, Jean Patrick draws the strength for grueling Olympic training and the courage to run his life's most crucial race--to save himself and his family. A vividly told tale with a memorable champion at its heart. --Mari Malcolm ...

MONDAY, JAN 16: Opening Night: The Africa in UBC High Commissioner of Lesotho in Canada and UBC alumna, Her Excellency Dr. Mathabo Tsepa, will address students, faculty, administration and the Vancouver community on the dire necessity of an African Studies Program and the role it will play in creating truly “international leaders” from UBC. The night will also include cultural performances by AAI members as well as the greater Vancouver African community. Venue: Museum of Anthropology Time: 6:00 - 7:30pm TUESDAY, JAN 17: Research In Africa Two UBC professors will be presenting their research projects in Africa and speak on the unparalleled importance of Africa’s ecosystems Venue: Global Lounge Time: 12:00 - 1:30pm Speakers: Dr. Gary Bull , UBC Forestry A representative from The Africa Forest Research Initiative on Conservation and Development (AFRICAD) Two UBC professors will be presenting their research projects in A...

Title : Together Authors : John Eppel and Julius Chingono. Publisher : UNO Press (USA) Date : 2011 Reviewed by Emmanuel Sigauke One question I remember asking in the late eighties and early nineties in Zimbabwe is: Where are all the white writers? I could easily have concluded that Zimbabwe had no white writers, or that white Zimbabweans could not write. But I remembered that when I started school in the 70s, before Zimbabwe's independence, I had read stories and poems by white writers in school. So, as works by black writers flourished in the eighties, what was happening to works by white writers? John Eppel hints at  one of the many possible answers in a short essay in the poetry collection, 'State of the Nation': "None of the Zimbabwean presses would publish me; none of the South African presses. Influential academics (and editors) of anthologies, not only at home but in those countries starched with political correctness like post-independent South ...

Title : The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe Author : Peter Godwin Publisher : Little, Brown and Company Year : 2010 I first bought a Peter Godwin book, 'Mukiwa', on June 21, 1997, in Sacramento, California. I was an employee at Borders, and I remember bragging to co-workers about how I had just discovered yet another African writer in the store's stock. Those were the days when you had to scour shelves for months, looking for African books that never seemed to show up, so you were then tempted to buy a second copy of 'Things Fall Apart' (we got an employee discount). Long story short, I was happy to discover 'Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa'. From the start, I have read Peter Godwin as a fellow African, for the power of his prose and his panoramic coverage of the Zimbabwean landscape. His narrative persona loves to describe Zimbabwe, the Eastern highlands, particularly Chimanimani. I liked this because the year before, 1996, I had discov...

This information has been compiled by Sacramento writer and instructor, Kate Asche. So many writing opportunities in the Sacramento Area. Enjoy: Learn to write at I Street Press, at Sacramento Public Library! Sacramento Library is pleased to be taking registrations for all winter 2012 writing classes! At I Street Press, you can write at many different Library locations in classes with the Sacramento area’s best writers and teachers. Teaching artists include Elaine Corn, David Watts Barton, Valerie Fioravanti, Jennifer Basye Sander, Jane Gassner, and many others. Topics include self-publishing, blogging, journalism, creative writing, editing, publishing contract law and more! And—did you know free scholarships are available? For full details, visit www.saclibrary.org/istreet and click on “Write.” Register and pay for classes online. Classes start this Tuesday, January 10, 2012! For more info, check out these media appearances: Library Director Rivkah Sass and ...