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Nii Ayikwei ParkesNii Ayikwei ParkesBack | Genres | Bibliography | Prizes and awards | Author statement | Contact details | Related links | Printer-friendly version
BiographyNii Ayikwei Parkes is a writer of poetry, prose and articles, and has published 3 poetry chapbooks: eyes of a boy, lips of a man (1999); M is for Madrigal (2004), a selection of seven jazz poems; and shorter (2005), published to raise money for a writers' fund in Ghana. His is also the Senior Editor at flipped eye publishing, and a contributor to many literary magazines and journals, including Wasafiri, Poetry News, The New Writer, Storyteller Magazine, The Liberal, Mechanics Institute Review and Sable. Nii co-edited the short story anthologies, Tell Tales: Volume 1 (2004), with Courttia Newland; and x-24: unclassified (2007), with Tash Aw.
An experienced performer of his work he has appeared all over the world, including at NuYorican, New York; The Royal Festival Hall, London; and Java, Paris, and often leads writing and performance workshops. In 2002, he completed a six-week tour of the US, and he runs the African Writers' Evening series at the Poetry Cafe, in Covent Garden, London. He has been poet in residence at the Poetry Cafe, associate writer in residence for BBC Radio 3, and is writer in residence at California State University in 2007. His poem, 'Tin Roof', was selected for the 'Poems on the Underground' initiative.
His first novel, Tail of the Blue Bird (2009), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best First Book). In the same year, a short story, 'Socks Ball', was highly commended in the Caine Prize for African Writing and he became Online Writer in Residence for Booktrust.
His latest book is ballast: a remix (2009), a collection of poetry shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award.
Genres (in alphabetical order)Children, Fiction, Poetry, Short stories
Bibliographyeyes of a boy, lips of a man flipped eye (Ghana), 1999 M is for Madrigal tall-lighthouse, 2004 Tell Tales: Volume 1 (co-editor) Tell Tales, 2004 shorter , 2005 x-24: unclassified (co-editor) flipped eye, 2007 ballast: a remix tall-lighthouse, 2009 Tail of the Blue Bird Cape, 2009
Prizes and awards2007 Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana Award for Poetry 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best First Book) (shortlist) Tail of the Blue Bird 2010 Michael Marks Poetry Award (shortlist) ballast: a remix
Author statementI have come to see my writing career as the job of a middleman, or the equivalent of a brand; seeking stories, packaging them in my language or brand, and passing them on to whoever wants to buy into my rendering of the truth. I focus on the voice of my characters, and relinquish the control of the truth to them, although it can only be told within the limits of my vocabulary. I also rely heavily on the ability of my audience to be able to afford – by dint of taxing their imaginations and preconceptions – the products of my search. As part of my branding toolkit, I count on the 14 languages that float around in my head for weight; the five I speak fluently for depth; maps that I have pilfered from writers I admire such as Chinua Achebe, Saul Bellow, Walter Mosley, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Mario Vargas Llosa, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Mariama Ba, Ernest Hemingway, Ayikwei Armah, James Baldwin, W.B. Yeats, Atukwei Okai, Li-Young Lee and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for direction; and the growing lexis of my own experiences.
Contact information
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