An update for June

I admit; this is not really a blog. It's a not-very-faithful-copy of my e-newsletter, but it's all I have time for at present. Anyway, I come with good news... great news: the release of the Tail of the Blue Bird mass market paperback in the UK, release of the Dutch translation, release of the German translation, availability of SIGNED copies in Ghana and the imminent release of a US edition (all in Book News below). I also have three really cool events coming up - the first in relation to the Michael Marks award that I've been shortlisted for, the others with the fabulous Booktrust and Writers Centre Norwich. The details for those are just below in the events section.

 

events

Wednesday, June 16, 2010: Michael Marks Readings and Award Ceremony - I've been shortlisted for this cool award for my pamphlet ballast: a remix and the event is being held at the British Library's Conference Centre - It starts at 6.30pm (I'll be reading around from 7.00pm) and costs  £6 (£4 concessions) and tickets can be bought online from the British Library website or via telephone on 01937 546 546. I have one complimentary ticket to give away on a first-e-mail-first-served basis :) Thursday, June 17, 2010: Whose Muse is it Anyway? - I'm hosting this fantastic poetic take on 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon: The blurb goes - an evening of funny improvisational performance poetry, hosted by former Booktrust writer in residence Nii Ayikwei Parkes featuring Dizraeli, Laura Dockrill, Doc Brown and Luke Wright. It starts at 7pm and it's only £5 to come! Click here for more details and to buy your ticket Monday, June 21, 2010: Summer Reads (Norwich) - the Writers Centre in Norwich has included Tail of the Blue Bird in their Summer Reads programme (more here) in which six books have been chosen as Summer Reads Book Club books. There is even a book club session in August for Tail of the Blue Bird, but before that I will be reading at a live event with Naomi Alderman and Mick Jackson. It starts at 6.30pm at the world famous Norfolk and Norwich Milliennium Library and it's ONLY £2 on the door: full details and tickets online. Follow Writers Centre Norwich on Facebook or Twitter.

Book News

Tail of the Blue Bird: The UK mass market paperback is out and on shelves right now generally ranging from £5.99 on amazon and Foyles to the full £7.99 on waterstones (although they have free postage!). The lowest price, surprisingly, is £5.59 at WHSmiths!   If you're in Ghana, you can get signed copies of the mass market paperback exclusively at SyTris Books on Spintex Road for just GHC15. They also have copies of the trade paperback at GHC25.   Dutch: The Dutch release of the book hits shelves this week in the Netherlands (you can see it on the publisher's website). I have one free copy to give to a Dutch speaker - drop me an e-mail and I'll get it to you!   German: The German release of the book (published by a Swiss publisher) also hits the shelves in a week and can be seen on the publisher's website. I don't have any free copies yet, but look out!   In the USA: A version of 'Tail of the Blue Bird' is set for release in the USA in September (full details to come) so if you know of anyone who would like to review it for a local paper etc. please put them in touch with me now and I will arrange for them to get copies by mid-July so we can drum up some HEAT for the long-awaited US release!

Prize & Praise

Two things.
Quickly.

ONE - 'Tail of the Blue Bird' made the shortlist for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Djama all night :)
TWO - I found a new, short but lovely, review of 'Tail of the Blue Bird' in the current issue of World Literature Today that 'got' some of the politics behind my aesthetic choices. Good times!

Review from World Literature Today, January-February 2010

Nii Ayikwei Parkes. Tail of the Blue Bird. London. Jonathan Cape. 2009. 176 pages. £12.99. isbn 978-0-224-08574-8

One of the most curious attractions of Tail of the Blue Bird is its privi­leging of Ghanaian languages over English. Nii Ayikwei Parkes tells a wonderful narrative where all the "English" words are italicized and the Ghanaian words of Twi and Ga are not: "It was black and shiny, but when the tall red policeman stepped closer it was wansima, about apem apem thousands." This in itself sets the book apart, and yet it is a revolu­tionary publication on other levels, too. Parkes has insisted on the use of phonetic script to capture the sounds of Ghanaian English—kєtє, sєbi, Asєm bєn ni!—and interestingly offers no key or glossary for the non-Ghanaian reader. In terms of con­tent, the book marks a moment in time when the postcolonial novel is leaving the stage; there is no "apolo­gy" in this narrative, nor is there any great sense of problematic opposites. Things in this book are very much "as they are."

Set in the hinterland of Ghana, the protagonist, Kayo, is "persuad­ed" by the Ghanaian police force to leave his comfortable forensic labo­ratory job in Accra to investigate a "whodunnit" in a village of twelve families somewhere in the Ghanaian jungle. The investigation, however, becomes increasingly complex, and Kayo's discussions with Opanyin Poku and Oduro, residents of the village, are told through a web of story and palm wine.

The story within the story explores the mysterious, employing Ghanaian proverbs and ancestral wisdom. In the narrative of Opanyin Poku, we read: "Ei, wonders will never cease. They say nothing is other than what you see, but it is also true that nothing is other than what you don't see."

It would be easy to state that the demonstrative differences of rural versus metropolis, East versus West, and rational versus ethereal are the basic tenets of this book, but that would be doing this publication an injustice. Tail of the Blue Bird reminds us that, although events may be rationalized, explained as "fate," or accepted as the unknown doings of ethereal forces, the universal fact remains that as humans, we all pass through them, live and endure them; whatever our cultural or philosophi­cal stance, we survive life's events to greater or lesser degrees.

Emma Dawson

Keele University

Workshop Freewrites [1]

It just occurred to me that I run dozens of workshops every year and I - as a rule - participate in the exercises that I use but rarely go back to them. Well, I've decided to share them: short summaries of the exercises, followed by my output - mostly terrible, but, I guess, they show what writing evolves from.

Exercise: The alphabet stop - I ask someone to say the alphabet in their head and another to stop them, whatever letter is the 'STOP' letter becomes the first letter of words contributed by everyone in the workshop. In this case, the letter was 'T' and the task was to use all the words that came up in two and a half minutes, which, I can assure you is both too little and too much. I don't think I need to mark out the 'T' words, but the aim of the exercise is to force the writer to manoeuvre around an odd selection of words and still deliver something close to a coherent narrative. The result is often odd, but often contains an exquisite seed of quirky brilliance that can form the basis of a more crafted piece of work. I first used this in 2003, partly inspired by an exercise used by fellow poet, Ainsley Burrows.

Output:
The temptation the tell the truth fades any time his vanity reigns triumphant; he wants to express his love, but it's torture for him to lose control and let her know. Tonight, like every other, ten out of ten thoughts are about her and his timidity, his tenacity to his independence, is stretching their togetherness taut as a trampoline; with every new trial she tolerates him less and with time he fears she'll see him as a thing that just came to steal her love today to boast about it tomorrow. He wants her to know it's not that way, but every time he tries to talk he tastes his fear and his treacherous pride traces the contours of his face into a tranquil expression that transfers none of his true thoughts to the tunnels of her tympanum.

Tonight, especially, he feels his foolishness tug at him, a tempestuous thing that trifles with him, transports his words away like a tsunami sweeper until he's standing in front of her - thirty years old, in trendy threads, fiddling with his dreads, trying to tell her he loves her, but sounding like a character from Toonami, like Taz, knowing she'll probably touch and go...