NO SERENITY HERE

Edited by Kaiyu Xiao, Isabel Ferrin-Aguirre and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

244 pages

Publisher: World Knowledge Publishers, Beijing

October 2010

ISBN 978-7-5012-3895-8

 Launch in Grahamstown, South Africa
July 6  2011 
@ Eden Grove, 12 o'clock
 

No Serenity Here, an anthology of African poetry in English, French, Portuguese Amharic and Arabic translated into Chinese launched during the Shanghai Biennale in October 2010, will be launched in Grahamstown on July 6.

In the anthology, original poems in English, French, Portuguese, Arabic and Amharic were published alongside their Chinese translations. The volume includes Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, along with voices from 25 African countries, and was translated by a team of Chinese poets under the guidance of Kaiyu Xiao.

Edited by Xiao in China, Isabel Ferrin-Aguirre in Berlin and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers in Johannesburg, No Serenity Here celebrates established writers such as Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana), Makhosazana Xaba and Lebo Mashile (South Africa), Veronique Tadjo (Cote d’Ivoire) and Fatima Naoot (Morocco), and introduce lesser known yet brilliant voices like TJ Dema (Botswana), Shailja Patel (Kenya) and Tania Tome (Mocambique), as well as Amanda Hammar and Joyce Chigiya (both from Zimbabwe).

Besides the veterans like Soyinka (Nigeria), Kofi Anyodoho (Ghana), Chirikure Chirikure (Zimbabwe), James Matthews (South Africa) and Keorapetse Kgositsile (South Africa’s Poet Laureate, whose poem lent the title to the anthology), the volume also showcases the prodigious talents of  Shabbir Bhanoobhai (South Africa), Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Ghana), Tolu Ogunlesi and Obododimma Oha (Nigeria), Stanley Onjezani Kenani (Malawi) and Beaven Tapureta (Zimbabwe), Keamogetsi Molapong and Dorian Haarhoff (Namibia), Hama Tuma and Alemu Tebeje Ayele (both from Ethiopia).

“We read widely, but it was the contact with contemporary poets that brought the project to life and delivered its unique vibrancy and varied voice,” says Ferrin-Aguirre, who also worked until recently as a programmer for the Berlin Poesiefestival and researcher for the Literatuurwerkstatt, a global database of poets which collects recordings of poets reciting their work in their original languages in its Lyrikline project.

Acclaimed Chinese poet and academic Kaiyu Xiao admits in his foreword: “the poems … would make me physically quiver as the poems shattered my expectations.” Many of the poets are appearing in print for the first time, and most of them for the first time in Chinese.

“African writers have made an important contribution to the world reservoir of thought on the human condition; this is just a small part of the literary wealth that we have to offer. China has given us so much, and I’m proud that we are reciprocating,” said writer and performer de Villiers.

Published by World Knowledge Publishers and commissioned by artist and philanthropist Mr Hu, the tri-continental project also received support from the Jiang Nan Art and Design Foundation and the Moonchu Foundation.

                                                                                                                                               

For further information contact Phillippa Yaa de Villiers phillippayaa@gmail.com

Isabel Ferrin-Aguirre aguirre_siemer@hotmail.com

Kaiyu Xiao kaiyu@gmx.de             

 Zimbabwean Poets Featured in No Serenity Here

 

Chirikure Chirikure enjoying a copy of No Serenity Here (PHOTO: Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

Joyce Chigiya

 

Amanda Hammar

     Beaven Tapureta