Breaking the Silence: Anthology of Liberian Poetry (African Poetry Book)

by: Patricia Jabbeh Wesley (Editor)

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Publication Date: 2023/3/1

Language: English

Print Length: 302 pages

ISBN-10: 1496233069

ISBN-13: 9781496233066

Book Description

Named a Notable African Book of 2023 by Brittle Paper Breaking the Silence is the first comprehensive collection of literature from Liberia since before the nation’s independence. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley has gathered work from the 1800s to the present, including poets and emerging young writers exploring contemporary literary traditions with African and African diaspora poetry that transcends borders. In this collection, Liberia’s founding settlers wrestle with their identity as African free slaves in the homeland from which their ancestors were captured, and writers of the early twentieth and twenty-first centuries find themselves navigating a landscape at odds with itself. From poets of Liberia’s past to young writers of the present, the contributors to this volume celebrate the beauty of their nation while mouing the devastation of a long, bloody civil war.

About the Author

Named a Notable African Book of 2023 by Brittle Paper Breaking the Silence is the first comprehensive collection of literature from Liberia since before the nation’s independence. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley has gathered work from the 1800s to the present, including poets and emerging young writers exploring contemporary literary traditions with African and African diaspora poetry that transcends borders. In this collection, Liberia’s founding settlers wrestle with their identity as African free slaves in the homeland from which their ancestors were captured, and writers of the early twentieth and twenty-first centuries find themselves navigating a landscape at odds with itself. From poets of Liberia’s past to young writers of the present, the contributors to this volume celebrate the beauty of their nation while mouing the devastation of a long, bloody civil war.