Are you familiar with the anthology Daughters of Africa? Well there’s a new one…and I’m in it. This edition, edited again by Ghana-born UK-based Margaret Busby, and already available for pre-order, is NEW DAUGHTERS OF AFRICA.
“Following up Margaret Busby’s landmark 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa, this companion volume brings together the words of writers from across the globe—Antigua to Zimbabwe, Angola to the USA—to honour a unifying heritage while showing the remarkable range of creativity from the African diaspora particularly in the past 25 years. Arranged chronologically, New Daughters of Africa illustrates an uplifting sense of sisterhood and the links that endure from generation to generation, as well as common obstacles writers still negotiate around issues of race, gender and class.”
I’m looking forward to being one with the community of writers in this collection – my selected contribution being a short fiction entitled ‘Evening Ritual’. I say community because I’ve been anthologized a few times now (For Women: in Tribute to Nina Simone, In the Black: New African Canadian Literature, So the Nailhead Bend So the Story End: an Anthology of Antiguan and Barbudan Writing, She Sex Prose and Poetry: Sex and the Caribbean Woman, Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean, Round My Christmas Tree, A River of Stories) and there is something community-like about being chosen to share space with other writers. An embrace. I had that sense especially and a sense of the scope and the epic-ness of this one reading through the credits. This is a collection rooted in Africa and in the connection we share because of being limbs from that root. That’s kinda dope. Doper still to be in company with such greatness (Edwidge Dandicat, Roxane Gay, Leone Ross etc.).
I thought I’d share the names with you so you, too, can catch the excitement. So, with acknowledgment of multiple identities (born here, parents from there; born here, grew up there etc.), the authors’ countries of birth (to the best of my research) are:
Angola – Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida
Antigua and Barbuda – Joanne C. Hillhouse
Australia – Maxine Beneba Clarke
Bahamas – Marion Bethel, Patricia Glinton-Meicholas
Barbados – Karen Lord, Yewande Omotoso
Benin – Rashidah Ismaili
Bermuda – Angela Barry
Botswana – Tjawangwa Dema, Wame Molefhe
Brazil – Deise Nunes
Burundi – Ketty Nivyabandi
Cameroon – Imbolo Mbue, Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi
Canada – Esi Edugyan, Zetta Elliott
Cuba – Zuleica Romay
Dominica – Jane Grell, Celia Sorhaindo
Egypt – Leila Aboulela, Nawal El Saadawi
Eritrea – Hannah Azieb Pool
Ethiopia – Aida Edemariam, Maaza Mengiste
Finland – Minna Salami
France (?) – Jean Thévenet
Germany – Olumide Popoola, Jennifer Teege
Ghana – Zoe Adjonyoh, Ayesha Harruna Attah, Yaba Badoe, Ama Biney, Akosua Busia, Nana-Ama Danquah, Nana Oforiatta-Ayim
Grenada – Joan Anim-Addo, Verna Wilkins
Guyana – Andaiye, Michelle Yaa Asantewa, Charlotte Williams
Haiti – Edwidge Danticat, Anaïs Duplan, Danielle Legros Georges
Ivory Coast – Tanella Boni, Edwige Renée Dro
Jamaica – Jacqueline Bishop, Beverley Bryan, Carolyn Cooper, Ifeona Fulani, Nalo Hopkinson, Verene Shepherd, Andrea Stuart
Kenya – Juliane Okot Bitek, Wangui wa Goro, Wanjiku wa Ngugi, Makena Onjerika, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Warsan Shire
Liberia – Hawa Jande Golakai
Nigeria – Ayobami Adebayo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Yemisi Aribisala, Sefi Atta, Simi Bedford, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Irenosen Okojie, Chinelo Okparanta, Chibundu Onuzo, Osonye Tess Onwueme, Noo Saro-Wiwa, Lola Shoneyin, Chika Unigwe
Norway – Afua Hirsch
Puerto Rico – Yvonne Denis Rosario
Somalia – Nadifa Mohamed
South Africa – Gabeba Baderoon, Nadia Davids, Diana Ferrus, Vangile Gantsho, Ashley Makue, Barbara Masekela, Lebogang Mashile, Nomavenda Mathiane, Kopano Matlwa, Natalia Molebatsi, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Makhosazana Xaba
Sudan – Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Trinidad & Tobago – Lisa Allen-Agostini, Rhoda Bharath, Summer Edward, Barbara Jenkins, Rosamond King, Elizabeth Nunez, Alake Pilgrim, Marina Salandy-Brown, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw
Uganda – Harriet Anena, Monica Arac de Nyeko, Doreen Baingana, Mildred Barya, Jackee Budesta Batanda, Susan Nalugwa Kiguli, Goretti Kyomuhendo, Beatrice Lamwaka, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Glaydah Namukasa, Hilda Twongyeirwe, Ayeta Anne Wangusa
UK – Sade Adeniran, Patience Agbabi, Amma Asante, Yvonne Bailey-Smith, Ellen Banda-Aaku, Jay Bernard, Malorie Blackman, Malika Booker, Candice Carty-Williams, Angela Cobbinhah, Patricia Cumper, Stella Dadzie, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Yvvette Edwards, Zena Edwards, Diana Evans, Bernardine Evaristo, Aminatta Forna, Carmen Harris, Zita Holbourne, Delia Jarrett-Macauley, Catherine Johnson, Patrice Lawrence, Andrea Levy, Lesley Lokko, Ros Martin, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Bridget Minamore, Selina Nwulu, Winsome Pinnock, Leone Ross, Suzanne Scafe, Taiye Selasi, Kadija Sesay, Dorothea Smartt, Zadie Smith, Ade Solanke, SuAndi, Kit de Waal , Sue Woodford-Hollick
USA – Candace Allen, Gabrielle Civil, Nah Dove, Camille Dungy, Safia Elhillo, Eve Ewing, Nikki Finney, Roxane Gay, Bonnie Greer, Margo Jefferson, Donika Kelly, Adrienne Kennedy, Lauri Kubuitsile, Aja Monet, Bethany C. Morrow, Nnedi Okorafor, Zandria F. Robinson, Sapphire, Jesmyn Ward
United States Virgin Islands – Tiphanie Yanique
Zambia – Petina Gappah, Namwali Serpell, Zukiswa Wanner
Zimbabwe – Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Panashe Chigumadzi, Ethel Irene Kabwato, Isabella Matambanadzo, Blessing Musariri, Valerie Tagwira, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, Yvonne Vera
Yeah, I’m the book nerd who looked up the country of origin of all the authors in the collection – delighted at the range and happy as always to be repping Antigua and Barbuda. Shout out to the writers I’ve met along the way, the writers I probably shouldn’t meet but whose writing I’ll continue to enjoy, the ones I’ve read, and the many more I look forward to reading, and, yay, to all of us who were selected for this collection. Personal shout out as well to Jacob Ross (you know what you did).
OTHER WRITING NEWS: You can also catch additional new fiction from me, The Night the World Ended, forthcoming in The Caribbean Writer Volume 32: Rough Tides, Tough Times: Reflections and Transitions. On the non-fiction side of my writing (and freelancing life), here’s a piece on Barbuda published in Huffington Post more than a month ago now – or rather a recently discovered share of it on Repeating Islands. Something both The Caribbean Writer and Huffington Post pieces have in common – finding inspiration in the tumultuous 2017 hurricane season. And, finally, for now, catch me reading from my latest book Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure at a panel entitled ReadCaribbean Presents Adventures for Kids at the Miami Book Fair on November 18th 2018. #onthehustle #TheWritingLife
If you’re here for the first time, my name is Joanne C. Hillhouse. I’ve authored some books – I hope you’ll check them out (and if you already have, I encourage you to post a reader review to Amazon or Goodreads, or even here); and I offer freelance services – look me up if you need any of the listed services. Thanks!