Monday, August 15, 2011

बुक रेविएव वोइसस फ्रॉम EXILE

Voices from Exile A Book of Poetry

Tendai Mwanaka

Lapwing Publications

Ballysillan Drive, Belfast BT14 8HQ

lapwing.poetry@ntlworld.com

9781907276484 $10.00 / $5.00 (Digital Price in PDF)

Christina Johns

Reviewer

From his blog, African poet Tendai Mwanaka speaks: "Sometimes the beautiful colours of the rainbow myth are a pointer telling you to look beyond their poetic-singed about beauty and the hollowed hauntings of those rainbow colours results in one colour ultimately playing the god-insect function."

- May 1, 2011

Tendai Mwanaka, is a creative writer, worldly anthologized poet, short story writer and non fiction writer. At publication time for Voices from Exile, he was a Zimbabwean citizen staying in South Africa on temporary visas. Though he has had poetry published in over 50 countries, this is his collection about political exile in South Africa. His political exile.

Beginning his writing career when he was twenty years old, Tendai has had his work published in the USA, UK, Southern Africa, India, Italy, France, Spain, New Zealand and Australia. He is also a songwriter.

"Brutal Times," leads the collection by introducing the reader to one of the dark sides of being a political prisoner.

"Brutal Times

The arrest and slammed doors

In a cell, in Harare

The beatings, gorging, chopping

In the throes of a shape-shift

The walls of my cell in Chikurubi

Maximum prison.

Slanting backwards with weights

Of a cracked head, gorged flesh and chopped

Limbs of my own body.

And my steady howling and gnashing cries.

"The CIO's beatings, questions,

Sexual and psychological abuse

Trying to bleed answers from me.

Also from my next cell's occupant.

Talk, talk, talk the insistent hammer

Of those words repeated again and again.

Where are your handlers? Where are the weapons?

What was the plan...that I never had?

That I never knew of, and in the next cell

The green bombers rage at the cell's occupant..."

From The Brutal Times, Voices from Exile, page 7.

The poems are plenty and run a gamut of emotion. Perhaps one of the most touching poems is one entitled "That Child," which describes the horror of coming of age in a war-riddled place and searching for meaning from the sad conditions.

The words here paint pictures that the reader can touch. Some good pictures and some not so good pictures:

"They hit me with those sticks, gun butts, belts, etc, on my stomach. The child I was carrying broke to pieces inside my stomach. The baby girl died inside me. Though my husband died that night, it was God's desire that I did not die too.

"It was at the hospital that the child was born afterwards. The doctors had to cut my stomach to remove those pieces. A head alone, then a leg, an arm, the body, piece by piece."

--Breaking the Silence, Voices from Exile, Pg 12

This book will be enjoyed by poetry lovers and anyone wondering about what has been going on for the people in certain parts of Africa. Though the countries are war torn and seem a mystery to those of us lucky enough to be somewhere else, Tendai furnishes us with a portrait of the place he calls home.

एन्त्र्यफ्री contest

CONSEQUENCE PRIZE IN POETRY
http://www.consequencemagazine.org/poetrycontest.html
---
NO ENTRY FEE
The prize recognizes exceptional work addressing the
consequences of armed conflict or social injustice. The
award for best poem includes a cash prize of $200. The
winning poet and three finalists will have their work
published in the Spring 2012 issue of CONSEQUENCE Magazine.
Please submit no more than three poems of any length.
Deadline October 1, 2011.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

व्रितिंग fellowship

Position Summary: The Hodder Fellowship
Princeton University, Lewis Center for the Arts
Website: http://www.princeton.edu/arts/fellows
The Hodder Fellowship will be given to writers of exceptional promise to pursue independent projects at Princeton University during the 2012-2013 academic year. Hodder Fellows may be poets, playwrights, novelists, creative nonfiction writers, translators, or other artists and humanists who have "much more than ordinarily intellectual and literary gifts" and who are selected "for promise rather than performance." Given the strengths of our applicant pool, most successful Fellows have published a first book and are undertaking significant new work that might not be possible without the "studious leisure" afforded by this fellowship. Hodder Fellows spend an academic year at Princeton pursuing independent projects. Fellowships cannot fund work leading to the Ph.D. You need not be a U.S. citizen to apply. Submit a resume, sample of previous work (10 pages maximum, not returnable), and a project proposal of 2-3 pages.
Guidelines available on website. Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative action regulations. Apply online at http://jobs.princeton.edu.
Deadline: November 1, 2011
Stipend: $65,800.
Essential Qualifications: Writers of exceptional promise needed to pursue independent projects
Education Required: Other-see essential qualifications

Application Information

Contact:
Lewis Center for the Arts - 185
Princeton University

Online App. Form:
https://jobs.princeton.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=61135&jtsrc=www.hig heredjobs.com&jtrfr=www.peopleadmin.com&adorig=PA

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