Going Back to Ghana
Right before New Years 2007, I received a beautifully written, impassioned email several pages in length from Jeffrey Renard Allen (Rails Under My Back) in which he spoke of an epiphany that he had reached while travelling through Africa, and the need for us as writers to return for a literary event of a magnitude never witnessed before.
Stunningly, in a mere three months, Jeffrey Renard Allen has made that nearly impossible dream a reality, assembling an A-List of writers that represent a variety of style, genres, and backgrounds for a trip to West Africa next summer.
Ghana has historically been the place for African Diasporans looking to return to the land of their ancestors. It is the nation of the great Kwame Nkrumah, the resting place of W.E.B Dubois, where Maya Angelou rested her travelling shoes. It is a country of great beauty and promise: relatively safe, stable, spiritual, ancient, and the maker of best beer and Chinese food in the world outside of Asia (I'm not even kidding).
I may be teaching at the Forum in 2009, but I'm still tempted to scrape my pennies together and just pop up to see it go down. This is history happening.
Check it out:
Pan African Literary Forum July 3-18, 2008
GHANA
GHANA
Jeffery Renard Allen, Director
Arthur Flowers, Co-Director
Sean Hill, Administrative Manager
Arthur Flowers, Co-Director
Sean Hill, Administrative Manager
Week-long Workshops in Accra Week-long Retreat and Master Classes in the Asante city of Kumasi
Faculty:
Colin Channer, Junot Diaz, Niq Mhlongo—Fiction
Kwame Dawes, Yusef Komunyakaa, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley—Poetry
E. Ethelbert Miller, Binavanga Wainaina—Creative Nonfiction
Sheree Thomas—Speculative Fiction
Sapphire—Performance Poetry
Chimamanda Adichie, Mohammed Nassehu Ali, Jeffery Renard Allen,Craft Classes and Lectures Panels, Programs, and Consultations with faculty, agents, editors, and publishers Tours and Special Cultural Events Award Competitions: Special Competition for emerging writers from Africa and the African Diaspora Judges:
Walter Cummins, Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, David Daniel, Arthur Flowers,
Nina Foxx, Mary Gaitskill, James Gibbons, Manu Herbstein, Myronn Hardy, Duriel Harris, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, Major Jackson, Tyheimba Jess,
Josip Novakovich, Bayo Ojikutu, Ed Pavlic, Caryl Phillips, Robert Polito,
Francine Prose, Nellie Rosario, Lore Segal, Matthew Sharp, Terese Svoboda, Peter Tachtenberg, Eisa Ulen, Quincy Troupe, and John Edgar Wideman
Junot Diaz—FictionOpen Competition for anyone who wishes to submit work Judges:
Quincy Troupe—Poetry
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah—Creative Nonfiction
Winners will receive a Free Trip to the Conference and publication in The Literary Review and in a special insert of A Public Space
John Edgar Wideman—FictionWinners will receive a Free Trip to the Conference and publication in The Literary Review
Terese Svoboda—Poetry
Josip Novakovich—Creative Nonfiction
Financial Aid, Scholarships and Fellowships Available
For more information, write us at:
Pan African Literary Forum
544,511 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10011-8436
544,511 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10011-8436
Email:
admin@panafricanliteraryforum.com
JeffAllen@panafricanliteraryforum.com
Aflowers@panafricanliteraryforum.com
Seanhill@panafricanliteraryforum.com
JeffAllen@panafricanliteraryforum.com
Aflowers@panafricanliteraryforum.com
Seanhill@panafricanliteraryforum.com
Phone:
posted by Mat Johnson at 6:35 AM
7 Comments:
Thanks for the information about the workshop. Do you know if they'll have anything about spoken word?
Yup, from the legendary Sapphire herself.
Not to be a hard-asterisk, but...'spoken word blogger' - do you read poetry at all? Are you familiar with E. Ethelbert Miller or Sapphire?
Perhaps you are not in a cultural epicenter, and don't have the chance to mingle (as I do not at this time). Find a Black bookstore and get cooking, my potential fellow (pun intended).
If we both wind up in Ghana on scholarship, I'll introduce myself face-to-face and apologize for the 'tude and hubris.
*****
Mat Johnson:
Thank you so much for this post. Last evening, I had a rather fateful conversation with an older, less than warm neighbor, who encouraged me to get back to basics, open up some of the books on my shelves, and delve into what lights up my soul. Then he said come back and let him know how it was going, his door is always open. Who knew?
These doors that open for us swing both ways, across generations, in flow, in continuum.
-lmlikethat
Mat-I have been waiting for another book from Jeff and Arthur Flowers, but the conference is amazing. )And proud that so many of those participating have appeared at our store. I would love to see an come out of this. In any case, one absence occurs to me--critical writing.
That should have read--
I would love to see an account or anthology come out of this akin to Furious Flower.
I'm the co-founder of a new literary magazine, Slice, and a big fan of Junot Diaz. Check out our website for more about our debut issue, which includes an exclusive interview with Junot about how he started his writing career. www.slicemagazine.org
I love the words Pan and Africa; and i am glad to have taken notice of this opportunity to meet literary artist diverse genre. it is my wish to be a part of it.
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