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    “All the ghosts of life/ assemble before us”

    March 7, 2019 /

    This March started with a bang for poetry. On the first day of the month, University Press of Nebraska published Tjawangwa Dema’s debut collection The Careless Seamstress and Mahtem Shiferraw’s sophomore collection Your Body is War as part of the African Poetry Book Series. Both poets are deeply invested in interrogating the ways women experience this world and crafting a specific language and imagery to capture these experiences. Tjawangwa Dema’s chapbook Mandible had been included in the box set Seven New Generation African Poets five years ago – other poets of that group like Warsan Shire, Nick Makoha, and Ladan Osman have also gone on to publish celebrated works since. Now it is Dema’s turn…

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Biyi Bandele (13 October 1967 – 7 August 2022) Biyi Bandele (13 October 1967 – 7 August 2022)

Still a bit taken aback by the news of Biyi Bandele's untimely passing. His latest film, Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman (a screen adaptation of Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman) has just premiered recently and will come to Netflix soon. And only last year a new historical novel (after way more than a decade, I think) had been announced for 2023: Yorùbá Boy Running.

Bernardine Evaristo wrote yesterday: "He was very much part of our arts community here in the UK and Nigeria. I always had huge respect for his prolific, super-talented and fearless creativity - writing for theatre, novels (with a new novel due from Hamish Hamilton), radio, journalism, making films (Shuga, Half of a Yellow Sun, Blood Sisters) and photography (which he posted on Instagram - gorgeous)."

[Image description: The novel "Burma Boy" by Biyi Bandele lies on an chair.]

#BiyiBandele #bookstagram #igreads #africanliterature #bibliophile #bookish
The perfect book for the weekend has just arrived. The perfect book for the weekend has just arrived.

[Image description: My hand holds up a copy of the book A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers.]

#bookstagram #igreads #BeckyChambers #APrayerForTheCrownShy #QueerLitEveryMonth #queerliterature #queerbooks #bookworm #readerslife
#JulyWrapUp July was not only my worst reading mo #JulyWrapUp

July was not only my worst reading month so far this year (and also in years, I think). I wouldn't mind at all if that's the amount I read because I spent a lot of time doing other great things. Or just anything at all. But overall it's just a reflection of me not being super well. But here we are and it is what it is. I think my favourite this month was Claire Ratinon's "Unearthed. On Race and Roots and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong" and Nino Bulling's "Abfackeln".

Novel/ novellas
Diriye Osman: The Butterfly Jungle
Kalynn Byron: The Wicked Fate

Short stories
Nana Nkweti: Walking on Cowrie Shells
HOLAA (ed.): Exhale. Queer African Erotic Fiction

Poetry
Hawad: In The Net

Art/ Photography
Archives des luttes des femmes en Algèrie (Note on this one: it does include a lot of interesting historical material but misses some of the critical engagement with said material)

Comic/ Manga/ Graphic
Nino Bulling: Abfackeln

Non-Fiction
Claire Ratinon: Unearthed. On Race and Roots and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong
Palavi Guha: Hear #metoo in India: News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism

[Image description: Stack of all books mentioned in the caption.]

#bookstack #bookpile #books #igreads #igbooks #goodreads #booklover #readerslife
Learned only recently about #TheSealeyChallenge re Learned only recently about #TheSealeyChallenge recently. The goal of the challenge? To read one book of poetry each day in August. 

I will certainly not be able to do that but as I am on sick leave this week - and will be on holiday later the month, I might try to reread as many poetry books as I managed. So today I started by pulling some books from the African Poetry Book Series from my shelf!

Do you have any poetry related plans this month?

[Image description: My hand holds up three books in front of a bookshelf: Safia Elhillo's The January Children, Mahtem Shiferraw's Your Body Is War, Tjawangwa Dema's The Careless Seamstress.]

#bookstagram #poetry #AfricanPoetryBookSeries #igreads #SafiaElhillo #MahtemShiferraw #TjawangwaDema #bibliophile #goodreads #bookworm #readerslife
In "Hear #MeToo In India: News, Social Media, and In "Hear #MeToo In India: News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism", Pallavi Guha asks a lot of interesting questions: How does social media affect other media reporting on rape and sexual harassment? Which cases are highlighted and get attention? How will newsrooms report rape if reporters who are harassed by their own colleagues are rarely supported and more often than not driven away from journalism? How does the global #metoo movement relate to more locally rooted activism? Based on over seventy interviews with activists and journalists and analysis of media articles as well as social media activities, Guha tries to explain how agendas are set. 

Unfortunately, I found that the question posed are overall more interesting than the analysis and results provided. This is an academic text and Guha does quote a lot of other research. This in itself is of course not a bad thing, but here I felt there was at times too much of renarrating these other studies which often where not focused on India. And at the same time of feeling a "too much", it was also partially superficial, for example when Guha repeatedely refers to the wave model of feminisms without critiqueing it at all - and I was also confused why - if she refers so much to the US - she never mentioned Tarana Burke in the main text at all. 

There some very interesting tidbits in this book: from the insight that there is a significant difference of attention to rape cases not only based on class and caste of victims and perpetrators but also location (rural vs. urban), the depiction of anti-rape and sexual assault activism online before 2017 and discussions of how different feminist activists reacted to this kind of activism (for example, older established feminists vs a younger generation) . I just wished for more of that and a even deeper and more complex look at these things.

I would really love to read the thoughts of Indian feminists and activists of this book. If you know of any reviews on here, please feel free to point me towards them.

[Image description in alt text and comments]
"Mauritians watched as certain people accessed a s "Mauritians watched as certain people accessed a sliver of social mobility by conforming to the standards set by the British colonial institutions. That way lay power and prosperity. And so, in Mauritius - as in countless other countries throughout the world -their society came to view labouring in the field as lowly, and to see intellectual labour as the highest of aspirations."

"We don't value, as we should, those who grow our food. I sowed a seed for the first time as an adult. Watching the seeds that I've sown germinate and grow, struggle in some instances through my lack of knowledge, and then thrive in spaces better suited to their needs, I realised how little I understood; I realised how I'd steered my life towards endeavours that caused me to drift further and further away from the understanding that nature is not an externality or a backdrop, and far from an irrelevance. I realised that powerful systems, far larger than I, benefit from encouraging us all to believe that this work is degrading. But they are wrong. Growing food is everything."

This book <3 A beautiful memoir on gardening and moving to the countryside, belonging, and race between UK and Mauritius and a stint at a rooftop garden in NYC. Claire Ratinon looks at the legacies of colonialism and slavery and the realities of Brexit and eco-fascism, while describing how she fell in love with growing plants and gardening. 

[Image description: My hand holds a cover of Claire Ratinon's book "Unearthed: On Race and Roots, and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong" in front of some plants. The book cover is predominantley red and shows leaves and flowers.]

#bookstagram #Unearthed #ClaireRatinon #review #igreads #booklover #bookworm #readerslife #igbooks #justread #bookgeek #bookish #goodreads
Got Vagabonds! in March, read the first pages, lik Got Vagabonds! in March, read the first pages, liked them - and then got distracted. But really hope to finish this one in the next couple of days - especially knowing that @sreddyen loved this (have seen a lot of mixed reviews so far).

[Image description: The book Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde lies on a gray "Gay's The Word" tote bag.]

#currentlyreading #QueerLitEveryMonth #igreads #queerliterature #bookstagram #queerbooks #readerslife #Vagabonds! #EloghosaOsunde
The perfect book for this week between heat wave a The perfect book for this week between heat wave and Pride weekend? The graphic novel "abfackeln" (in English published under the titel "firebugs") by Nino Bulling follows protagonist Ingken through three seasons between experiencing effects of the climate crisis (and following news on the climate crisis), coping with complex feelings around gender, mental struggles, the romantic relationship with Lily, friendships and more. The images are kept in black and white with few red accents and perfectly transport the story. This is not a book with neat answers and prefectly behaving people, but instead it feels painfully realistic and in that incredibly beautiful.

"abfackeln" (which translates to "burn it down") is a story about a world on (literal) fire but also about the need to sometimes burn everything down (figuratively) to be able to grow something new. And a story about how difficult that is, as Ingken points out: "I just feel so lost. I am 33. And I got the feeling that I have to start all over again." 

[Image description: My hand holds up a copy of the book "abfackeln" by Nino Bulling i front of colourful flowers. The cover of the book shows two drawn images: on top a fire and below two people on a bed.]

#abfackeln #NinoBulling #EditionModerne #QueerLitEveryMonth #queerliterature #queerbooks #bookstagram #review #igreads #booklover #bookworm #readerslife #igbooks #justread #bookgeek #bookish #goodreads
Every month is a great month for books by trans au Every month is a great month for books by trans authors not just pride month. I just got myself these two beauties. Seeing forward to reading both. Have you read these books?

📖Lars Horn: Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay

"Lars Horn’s Voice of the Fish, the latest Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize winner, is an interwoven essay collection that explores the trans experience through themes of water, fish, and mythology, set against the backdrop of travels in Russia and a debilitating back injury that left Horn temporarily unable to speak. In Horn’s adept hands, the collection takes shape as a unified book: short vignettes about fish, reliquaries, and antiquities serve as interludes between longer essays, knitting together a sinuous, wave-like form that flows across the book."

📖Kit Heyam: Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender

"Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures."

[Image description: The two books Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam and Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay by Lars Horn lie stacked on a blanket. The background is blurred and shows two framed pictures against a green wall.]

#LarsHorn #VoiceOfTheFish #KitHeyam #BeforeWeWereTrans #QueerLitEveryMonth #queerliterature #queerbooks #bookstack #bookpile #books #igreads #igbooks #goodreads #booklover #readerslife
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