Matthew Shenoda on Contemporary African Women's Poetry in 'World Literature Today'

News Office Staff / Sep 18, 2017

Photo: Phil Dembinski '08
English and Creative Writing Professor and Dean of Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion published in 'World Literature Today'

World Literature Today recently published "Verse Africa: The Malleable Poetics of Some Contemporary African Poets" from Dean of Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and English and Creative Writing Professor Matthew Shenoda, highlighting African women poets in contemporary anglophone poetry.

“We have specifically seen the cultivation of the female voice as an unquestionable barometer of the health and vibrancy of these poetic traditions,” Shenoda writes, before exploring the lineage of contemporary African poetics from Ama Ata Aidoo in the 1960s to Mahtem Shiferraw, whose debut collection was published in 2016. “The poems of these women,” Shenoda writes, “have helped shape a global African poetic that creates a sense of unity without subjugation.” Read the full essay at

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