the style of her work is a MARVELOUS hybrid of poetry and prose. I really love it. I love the depth of her description. She truly takes you there. And the most important test for me is this: it is a book written about something other than the author. Too much of American writing feels as if you are reading a transcript, typed up, and sent directly from a therapist. She is able to pull the lens back but still be close enough so that there is feeling. All that I ask in writing, good writing, is that you make me feel it. I shouldn't feel as if this is a submission for a grade. I have to be able to see your love for the artform.
She passes with honours.
On Sat, Sep 7, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Ken,Great selection, IMHO. Eclectic. I'd love to audit your class, LOL! You obviously don't do short stories. I think you should consider short story collections. They are not many but Igoni Barrett just came out with one - From Caves of Rotten Teeth. I loved it. I am doing a review of Molara Wood's awesome new collection, Indigo.And of course we are still wrestling with how to study the most authentic collection of African stories in the 21st century - Facebook and Twitter. The book is a wretched competitor to those two. Read them someday - and make your students read them. Be well, man.- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 7, 2013 9:47 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - "Ghana Must Go"
for people's interest, i am teaching a course on recent african and african american writing:
Pius Adesanmi, You're Not a Country, AfricaNoo Saro-Wiwa, Looking for TranswonderlandNoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New NamesTeju Cole, Open CityEdward Jones, Lost in the CityColson Whitehead, John Henry DaysPercival Everett, AssumptionDinaw Mengestu, How to Read the AirChimamanda Adichie, AmericanahOptional: Taie Selassi, Ghana Must Goken
On 9/7/13 7:54 PM, Ikhide wrote:
I am reading the book, La Vonda, my experience is exactly as you have expressed it, it is a beautiful book. An important book by an important voice. I intend to share my views at some point. Taiye Selasi's Ghana Must Go ought to be taught in universities - along with Adichie's Americanah and NoViolet Bulawayo's stunning debut We Need New Names, for various reasons. But Selasi is charting new ground and trashing pre-conceived notions about identity. She is good.- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 6, 2013 11:29 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - "Ghana Must Go"
i've heard very good things about it and am anxious to get to reading it
ken
On 9/6/13 7:11 PM, La Vonda R. Staples wrote:
> Has anyone on the list read the new book, "Ghana Must Go?" It's a
> novel written by a very beautiful, talented, and cosmopolitan young
> lady. I am reading it now. I'm not doing an academic reading. I am
> reading every word so I guess you could say I'm reading for enjoyment.
>
> I want to know if there are any others who share my opinion of the
> book. It's very touching, sensitive, and has moved me to some pretty
> emotional peaks. Is it just me? Am I viscerally volcanic? Or have
> others felt the same?
>
> Please let me know via this thread of my email. It is
> lrstaples@gmail.com. These new African writers are nothing like their
> predecessors and they have far more depth than most African American
> writers who are their contemporaries in age, experiences, etc. It
> seems as if the college educated African American writer has very
> little to say which is "sticky." While the experiential tales of
> those who have written their lives, their hearts and their spirits are
> far better bets for your economic vote. With the African writers the
> converse is true. The educated African writer, in my limited opinion,
> is putting forth a body of work which may in fact create an era (i.e.,
> Harlem Renaissance, Negritude et al). I find nothing notable in the
> literary contributions of those who were "rescued" from the usual
> African range of subjects (child marriage, female circumcision, and
> the list is synonymous with the aid lists of NGOs). I'm tired of
> hearing how massah done saved his African chillun. Rather, I'm more
> interested in the views of those who have traveled the world and who
> have no dogs in any fight; the objective views of those who can frame
> an argument from various perspectives.
>
> Thank you for your time and attention,
>
> Vonda
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--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
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-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu--
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La Vonda R. Staples, Writer
BA Psychology 2005 and MA European History 2009
"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great; Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.
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