Beautiful Fire
Beautiful Fire was awarded Best Book of 2020 by the African Literature Association.
£16.00
About the author
Joyce Ashuntantang (Joyce Ash) is a poet, actress, interdisciplinary scholar and Associate Professor of English at the University of Hartford, Connecticut. A graduate of universities on three continents, Dr. Ashuntantang received a B.A in English with a minor in Theater Arts from the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, a Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Aberystwyth, UK, and a Ph.D. in English/African Literature from the City University of New York. She is the author of many scholarly and creative publications, which include Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Cameroon Anglophone Literature (2009) and three poetry collections, Their Champagne Party will End: Poems in Honor of Bate Besong, co-edited (2008), A Basket of Flaming Ashes (2010) and Beautiful Fire (2018). She has appeared as an invited poet in many countries around the world including England, Germany, Nicaragua, Greece, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bangladesh, Cameroon and USA. She has also contributed to several international anthologies of poetry highlighting the plight of minority groups including, Peace for Afrin, Peace for Kurdistan (2019), Hiraeth-Erzolirzoli: A Wales – Cameroon Anthology (2018), Poems for the Hazara (2014), Reflections: An Anthology of New Work by African Women Poets (2013) and We Have Crossed Many Rivers: New Poetry from Africa (2012). Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Turkish, Bangla, Arabic and Romanian. Her Awards include Spirit of Detroit Award for Leadership (1987), Ministry of Culture, Cameroon, Award for Outstanding Performance in Theater (1989, 1994), Belle K. Ribicoff Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship (2012) and Kathrak-Bangladesh Literary Award (2018).
Review
“The inspired and well crafted poetry of Joyce Ash is a feast
of life deepened and intensified through her poetic search for meaning.
Here is a poet whose every movement into language challenges us out of
our sentimental approaches to living. Her merciless insights translate
reality into what it used to be, taking us to the long forgotten world
where language, cultural roots, womanhood, and nature itself are
experienced as vital parts of the republic of the self. Beautiful Fire is a book that shows us what poetry can be, a book that stays with you long after you have finished reading it.”
Amir Or, author of Wings
“In a language which echoes no known poet’s, a voice so singular in
its unconventionality, and themes that capture the poet’s people’s
history and reality in spectacular images, Benjamin Kwakye’s Soul to
Song pioneers a fresh path in contemporary African poetry.”
Tanure Ojaide, Poet and Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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