Part of the 2019 Windham-Campbell Festival: https://windhamcampbell.org
For the past decade, African fiction has experienced global success. Yet up until recently, African poets have seen limited publishing opportunities. In order to give these poets the international platform they deserve, Kwame Dawes, Matthew Shenoda, and other prominent writers founded the African Poetry Book Fund—a series of publications, prizes, and events that calls attention to the exciting work being done by poets of the African diaspora. Dawes and Shenoda talk about the need for the Fund and what it means for African poetry.
Matthew Shenoda is a writer, professor, and university administrator whose poems and essays have appeared in a variety of newspapers, journals, radio programs and anthologies. His work has been supported by the California Arts Council and the Lannan Foundation among others. He is currently the Associate Provost for Social Equity & Inclusion and Professor of Literary Arts and Studies at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he directs the Center for Social Equity and Inclusion. He is a founding editor of the African Poetry Book Fund.