25 New Nigerian Poets

Poetry. African-Studies. With the publication of 25 NEW NIGERIAN POETS, Ishmael Reed's publishing company continues its commitment to new and politically relevant writers. In the introduction, Toyin Adewale writes that the literary renaissance joyfully announced by Harry Garuba in his introduction to VOICES FROM THE FRINGE, the anthology of 100 young Nigherian poets published in 1988 is today non-existent. The intervening decade between 1999 and now was burdened by the military regimes of General Ibrahim Babangida and General Sanni Abacha. The decade beheld the betrayal of our political will, the annulment of the June 1993 elections, the murder of human rights and political activists including the former president of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Ken Saro Wiwa. Nevertheless, because lack of publishing avenues is one of the starkest results of this turmoil, Adewale finds a sliver of hope in the existence of this very book, which she calls an appetizer to further reading in Nigerian lit