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Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry: Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Series
Celebrating ten years of New-Generation African Poets, Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry presents Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani’s unprecedented disquisition on the state of African poetry.
TOWARD A LIVING ARCHIVE OF AFRICAN POETRY collects Kwame Dawes’s and Chris Abani’s introductory essays for the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set Series. These essays are conversations that celebrate the work of emerging African poets and build—meticulously and with principled care—a vision of a pluralistic literary community in which poets may thrive. Over more than ten years, Dawes and Abani have offered readers a glimpse into their editorial labor and philosophy, which are guided by generosity and curiosity and trust in the work of African poets. Dawes’s and Abani’s editorial labor is a gift, an expansive curation that honors the past, present, and future of African literature.
In 2024, the APBF celebrates the publication of the tenth edition of the New-Generation African Poets Chapbooks Box Sets. Each of the box sets, edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani, feature a selection of chapbooks by emerging African authors who have not yet published a full-length collection of poetry.
Many thought-provoking threads related to African poetics appear across the essays. They advance a transnational vision of and for African poetry, one arising from their literary leadership to imagine and create a landscape in which the work of as many poets as possible can thrive, receive recognition, and be preserved for future generations. For, as they mention in their introduction to NANE, “the idea of a poetic community enacts the promise of being seen.”
TOWARD A LIVING ARCHIVE OF AFRICAN POETRY collects Kwame Dawes’s and Chris Abani’s introductory essays for the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set Series. These essays are conversations that celebrate the work of emerging African poets and build—meticulously and with principled care—a vision of a pluralistic literary community in which poets may thrive. Over more than ten years, Dawes and Abani have offered readers a glimpse into their editorial labor and philosophy, which are guided by generosity and curiosity and trust in the work of African poets. Dawes’s and Abani’s editorial labor is a gift, an expansive curation that honors the past, present, and future of African literature.
In 2024, the APBF celebrates the publication of the tenth edition of the New-Generation African Poets Chapbooks Box Sets. Each of the box sets, edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani, feature a selection of chapbooks by emerging African authors who have not yet published a full-length collection of poetry.
Many thought-provoking threads related to African poetics appear across the essays. They advance a transnational vision of and for African poetry, one arising from their literary leadership to imagine and create a landscape in which the work of as many poets as possible can thrive, receive recognition, and be preserved for future generations. For, as they mention in their introduction to NANE, “the idea of a poetic community enacts the promise of being seen.”
160 pages, Paperback
Published August 5, 2025
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4 people want to read
About the author
Kwame Dawes
119 books180 followersBorn in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica . As a poet, he is profoundly influenced by the rhythms and textures of that lush place, citing in a recent interview his "spiritual, intellectual, and emotional engagement with reggae music." His book Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius remains the most authoritative study of the lyrics of Bob Marley.
His 11th collection of verse, Wisteria: Poems From the Swamp Country, was published in January 2006. In February, 2007 Akashic Books published his novel, She's Gone and Peepal Tree Books published his 12th collection of poetry, Impossible Flying, and his non-fiction work, A Far Cry From Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative.
His essays have appeared in numerous journals including Bomb Magazine, The London Review of Books, Granta, Essence, World Literature Today and Double Take Magazine.
In October, 2007, his thirteenth book of poems, Gomer's Song will appear on the Black Goat imprint of Akashic Books. Dawes has seen produced some twenty of his plays over the past twenty-five years including, most recently a production of his musical, One Love, at the Lyric Hammersmith in London .
Kwame Dawes is Distinguished Poet in Residence, Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts and Founder and executive Director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. He is the director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute and the programming director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place in Jamaica in May of each year.
His 11th collection of verse, Wisteria: Poems From the Swamp Country, was published in January 2006. In February, 2007 Akashic Books published his novel, She's Gone and Peepal Tree Books published his 12th collection of poetry, Impossible Flying, and his non-fiction work, A Far Cry From Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative.
His essays have appeared in numerous journals including Bomb Magazine, The London Review of Books, Granta, Essence, World Literature Today and Double Take Magazine.
In October, 2007, his thirteenth book of poems, Gomer's Song will appear on the Black Goat imprint of Akashic Books. Dawes has seen produced some twenty of his plays over the past twenty-five years including, most recently a production of his musical, One Love, at the Lyric Hammersmith in London .
Kwame Dawes is Distinguished Poet in Residence, Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts and Founder and executive Director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. He is the director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute and the programming director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place in Jamaica in May of each year.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 7, 2025
This book is a celebration of the culmination and continuation of a decade of creating a space for African poets and storytellers to share their experiences, culture, memories, and more. It gives you a taste, through the introductory chapters of the 10 (so far) chapbooks of poetry. It is a labor of love and a noble and needed endeavor. It is equal parts history, culture and progress, with just a pinch of poetry thrown in to entice you.
It is daunting, beautiful and full of hope.
If you are not interested in reading the intros themselves, I strongly encourage you to seek out the chapbooks and/or the poets themselves.
I rather enjoy history, so seeing the beginning of the idea and the conversations and progression of this ever-growing collection of art and artists is truly a joy.
I gave only four stars for the fact that when I entered the giveaway, I thought it was a book of poetry, one of the chapbooks. I am still very pleasantly surprised and pleased. I learned several things I had no idea about and found some new favorite poets on the way. I've already begun looking them up and have added the chapbooks to my want to read list. I recommend both this book and the ones it celebrates.
*This book was part of a giveaway. Thanks to the authors, the poets and librarything.
It is daunting, beautiful and full of hope.
If you are not interested in reading the intros themselves, I strongly encourage you to seek out the chapbooks and/or the poets themselves.
I rather enjoy history, so seeing the beginning of the idea and the conversations and progression of this ever-growing collection of art and artists is truly a joy.
I gave only four stars for the fact that when I entered the giveaway, I thought it was a book of poetry, one of the chapbooks. I am still very pleasantly surprised and pleased. I learned several things I had no idea about and found some new favorite poets on the way. I've already begun looking them up and have added the chapbooks to my want to read list. I recommend both this book and the ones it celebrates.
*This book was part of a giveaway. Thanks to the authors, the poets and librarything.
December 22, 2025
An important look at a decade’s worth of work from the African Poetry Book Fund. While this collection of introductions obviously does not include the poems they are discussing, this book is valuable for the insights it provides into the state of contemporary African poetry.
October 21, 2025
"But I do offer this, and stand by these books, as evidence that there is a new conversation occurring in African poetry."
-Chris Albani in Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry: Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Series
Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry: Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Series by Kwame Dawes and Chris Albani might've had the opposite effect than the books intention but is still a great testament to the overlooked cause of African poetry via the introductory essays for the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set Series. There's a lot of insight regarding internal and external politics, the African poetry landscape, and the personal thoughts of the essay writers, but without the accompanying poems the book was dull and uninspiring. I'm sure, maybe, this is more entertaining for someone who has the box sets but for someone who doesn't have the context of the essays it doesn't make me want to go out and read them.
I will preface by saying I haven't read any of the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set Series. This book, I think, was meant to inspire the reader to look into reading the box sets but instead it left me yawning and looking up definitions for words as the language used by the authors are advanced. If the authors' intention was to appeal to new readers, the way that this book is done is cause for confusion rather than interest since the words being used don't apply to a broad audience.
The cause is wonderful and perhaps the box sets are more entertaining than this book but as a standalone book, although conceptually interesting, is extremely dull.
-Chris Albani in Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry: Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Series
Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry: Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Series by Kwame Dawes and Chris Albani might've had the opposite effect than the books intention but is still a great testament to the overlooked cause of African poetry via the introductory essays for the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set Series. There's a lot of insight regarding internal and external politics, the African poetry landscape, and the personal thoughts of the essay writers, but without the accompanying poems the book was dull and uninspiring. I'm sure, maybe, this is more entertaining for someone who has the box sets but for someone who doesn't have the context of the essays it doesn't make me want to go out and read them.
I will preface by saying I haven't read any of the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set Series. This book, I think, was meant to inspire the reader to look into reading the box sets but instead it left me yawning and looking up definitions for words as the language used by the authors are advanced. If the authors' intention was to appeal to new readers, the way that this book is done is cause for confusion rather than interest since the words being used don't apply to a broad audience.
The cause is wonderful and perhaps the box sets are more entertaining than this book but as a standalone book, although conceptually interesting, is extremely dull.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews