African Writers Symposium Review: Dinaw Mengestu

            On November 1^st at the Department of English Creative Writing Fund’s African Writer’s Symposium Dinaw Mengestu read an excerpt from his acclaimed novel The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears.  After reading sections there was a brief interview with Professor Paula Morris, in which they discussed the genesis of the book, Mengestu’s previous non-fiction work, the role of space in the novel, the reason it was set in Washington D.C., and David Eggers.   Following a theme of the day, the issue of getting an ‘African’ book published was raised. Mengestu said he was lucky to find a publisher who would support the novel from the start.

            After the interview a brief question and answer period was held. Questions included, what was the inspiration for “the little girl.” “She was pulled into the store and stuck around; she is the child….between African and American Identity.”  And, why are there two titles for the book?  “Children of the Revolution was to aggressive for Americans, to communist. The second title is from Dante and it was very easy to settle on after a search.”  

             Dinaw Mengestu currently resides in Paris, France and he is teaching classes at Tulane University as the author in residence during the 2008 fall semester.

 Zachary Leibman

African Writers Symposium Review: Niyi Osundare

             Niyi Osundare’s reading and discussion at Tulane’s African Writers Symposium dealt wit the genre of poetry as an interactive experience highlighting the synthesis of beauty and utility, and in its form, acting as a microcosm for Osundare’s philosophies of art and life; both art and life achieve their highest meanings when they become shared experiences.

            Peter Cooley’s introduction praised the utility of Osundare’s lyric. Cooley remarked that the true teaching of Osundare’s poetry emphasizes the lesson that, “The personal is always political, and the political is always personal.”

            Osundare began his reading with an interactive song in which he asked the audience to participate in repeating the refrain. In both his native language and in English, Osundare read with an engaging energy and an interesting and impressive tonal fluctuation. His second poem, “People are my Clothes” gained special significance for the poet following Hurricane Katrina. “People are my Clothes” demonstrated the performance aspects of a poetry reading, as Osundare literally acted out his lyric. In “Letter from an Editor” Osundare told the story of an African writer whose manuscript was “damned with faint praise” by a British publishing company, and addressed the unique challenges African writers face when trying to appeal to wide audiences.

            Osundare then read a few poems from his new book Days, an ode to the days of the week. In “Food Day” he praised the culinary senses of the world, and in “The Things that Days Do”, Osundare remarked on the wisdom, pride, and at times, suffering of the days of the week. In “I Envy the Days” Osundare took an interesting look at the civility of order of the days of the week, personifying each day with a projection of trite human emotions such as jealousy or competitiveness.

            Peter Cooley’s interview centered on the oral traditions of poetry and song, and the subsequent relationship between song and social purpose. Osundare attributes both the oral and aural aspects of his poetry and writing process to the tradition of African poetics and how poems are written to be performed in song or chant. Osundare remarked, “It is the hand that writes and the heart that thinks.” When asked about dealing with his poetry in multiple languages, Osundare said, “The creation of poetry is a translation in and of itself from the ‘inner language of the in-between.” 

 

Alexander C. Lipoff

 

 

African Writers Symposium Review: Mohammed Naseehu Ali

On November 1, 2008, the Department of English Creative Writing Fund had the pleasure of hosting the African Writers’ Symposium which featured short story writer, Mohammed Naseehu Ali of Ghana. Ali read excerpts from “Ward G-4” and “The Manhood Test,” which are short stories from his 2005 collection, The Prophet of Zongo Street. During his readings, one saw how Ali vividly portrayed the idiosyncrasies of a community and taboo topics, such as a male character’s impotency. During a discussion moderated by Professor Thomas Beller, Ali described the battle with handling the marketing and publishing world, a common topic of conversation amongst the writers of the symposium. During the creation of the The Prophet of Zongo Street, Ali’s goal was to write ten stories based on Zongo Street, but his editor wanted several stories set in the U.S. He also divulged that an illustration of a black individual’s hand was removed from his book cover. Despite Ali’s disillusionment with aspects of publishing, he expressed that he simply likes to tackle truth, and though his story content may be perceived as racy, he strives for authenticity in his work. Two of Ali’s stories are expected to evolve into future novels.

 

Laura Proszak

African Writers’ Symposium Biographies

Niyi Osundare is a poet, dramatist, critic, essayist, and media columnist. He was born in 1947 in Ekere-Ikiti, Ondo State, Nigeria. He taught English at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria from 1989 to 1993, when he became Head of the Department. During General Abacha’s dictatorship, Osundare, a champion of free speech, regularly contributed poems to a Nigerian national newspaper, and thus was often visited by national security agents. In 1997, Osundare was appointed professor of English at the University of New Orleans. He has published more than a dozen books, including Commonwealth Poetry Prize-winner The Eye of the Earth.

Short story writer Mohammed Naseehu Ali was born in Ghana in 1971, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Bennington College. Ali’s fiction and essays have been published in a number of prominent newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Essence. The New York Times described  his first collection of short fiction,  The Prophet of Zongo Street (2005), as “moving, subtle and ingeniously constructed.”

Sefi Atta is a short-story writer and novelist from Nigeria, born in Lagos in 1964, and educated in Nigeria, Britain and the US. A former chartered accountant and CPA, she is a graduate of the creative writing program at Antioch University, Los Angeles, and now lives in Mississippi. Her short fiction has won prizes from Zoetrope, Red Hen Press, the BBC and PEN International. In 2006 she was short listed for the Caine Prize for African Literature, and her debut novel, Everything Good Will Come, was awarded the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.

Dinaw Mengestu is the author of the novel The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears: currently shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, this novel is a Los Angeles Times bestseller, won the 2007 Guardian First Book Award, and was the ‘Seattle Reads’ pick of 2008. Dinaw was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1978. In 1980, he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister, joining his father, who had fled Ethiopia during the Red Terror. A graduate of Georgetown University and Columbia University’s MFA program in fiction, he received a 2006 fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a 5 Under 35 Award from the National Book Foundation in 2007. He has written for Rolling Stone and Harper’s, among other publications. He lives in New York City and Paris.

Press Release for African Writers Symposium

AFRICAN WRITERS’ SYMPOSIUM LAUNCHES YEAR OF LITERARY EVENTS AT TULANE: BILLY COLLINS AND JOAN DIDION TO VISIT CAMPUS IN SPRING

On Saturday, November 1^st, Tulane University’s Department of English hosts its first African Writers’ Symposium, featuring poet and dramatist Niyi Osundare, short story writer Mohammed Naseehu Ali, fiction writer Sefi Atta, and novelist Dinaw Mengestu, who is the current writer-in-residence at Tulane. The Symposium, which takes place at the Freeman Auditorium from 10 AM until 4 PM, is free and open to the public.

“What is particularly exciting about the symposium is that it will cater to the interests of a number of constituencies at Tulane and the city at large,” says Professor Gaurav Desai, chair of the Department of English. “We built it around Dinaw Mengestu’s residency. I am teaching Dinaw’s novel as well as the works of the other featured writers in my African literature class this semester, so my students will benefit as well as creative writing students. We have had other Africanist colleagues across campus and from the city at large call in about the event. We are expecting a large turnout!”

Supported by the Department of English Creative Writing Fund, the Symposium is the first of several major literary events this year on the Tulane campus. On March 16, poet Billy Collins, the second visitor in our Poet Laureate series, will give a reading at McAlister Auditorium. On April 6, the acclaimed journalist, essayist, memoirist and novelist Joan Didion will speak at McAlister. Didion is the third author to take part in our Great Writers Series, following standing-room-only visits by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison and Sir Salman Rushdie.

In addition, in early March, novelist Claire Messud will spend a week at Tulane as the Zale writer-in-residence, a program sponsored by the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women.

Tulane faculty taking part in the Symposium include Professors Peter Cooley, Paula Morris and Tom Beller, creative writing faculty in the Department of English, and Elisabeth McMahon from the Department of History. The final session of the day will be moderated by Gaurav Desai and Professor Eileen Julien, Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University.

African Writers Symposium Schedule

10 am Coffee
 
10:15 am Welcome — Gaurav Desai
 
10:30 – 11:15 am Dinaw Mengestu — Reading and Discussion; Moderated by Paula Morris.
 
11:15 – Noon Sefi Atta — Reading and Discussion; Moderated by Elisabeth McMahon.
 
Noon – 1 pm Lunch
 
1 – 1:45 pm Mohamed Naseehu Ali — Reading and Discussion; Moderated by Thomas Beller.
 
1:45 – 2:30 pm Niyi Osundare — Reading and Discussion; Moderated by Peter Cooley.
 
2:30 – 2:45 pm Coffee
 
2:45 – 4 pm Panel Discussion with Dinaw Mengestu, Sefi Atta, Mohamed Naseehu Ali and Niyi Osundare; Moderated by Gaurav Desai and Eileen Julien.