Since 1996, the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa has hosted an annual international poetry event called “Poetry Africa.” The festival attracts both spoken word and published poets from all parts of Africa and the diaspora to celebrate African poetry, engage in discussion panels, and compete and convene with fellow African poets. In the words of the program, the festival “provides a vital platform for the celebration and critical reflection about the contribution of poets in the movement for social change both nationally and internationally.”
In 2012, that goal rippled all the way from South Africa to the United States. While participating in the festival that year, Ghanaian-born poet Kwame Dawes and Nigerian-born poet Chris Abani found themselves inspired, but a little disappointed. They could see the missed opportunities based on their experience as poet-scholars elsewhere.
“It was humbling to see the range of the poetry on display,” says Abani of the event, “and heartbreaking to realize that this wasn’t being documented, published, and archived.” He was also disappointed that these talented African poets weren’t being offered the opportunity to share their work and to grow as artists. Abani and Dawes agreed that something needed to be done.
The African Poetry Book Fund (AFPB) was created the same year in cooperation with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where Dawes was a professor and editor of the vaunted Prairie Schooner. The goal was, and continues to be, “publishing African poets and supporting the honoring and preservation of African poetry through multiple initiatives.” They began spreading the word about breakthrough African poetry through awards and series featuring classic and contemporary African poets. Before long, they received further funding and an editorial board was established.
AFPB partnered with Akashic Books to launch their New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set series in 2014, with the first set of seven chapbooks and Dawes as Series Editor. Since 2024, the AFPB and its initiatives have been housed at Brown University, where Dawes now teaches.
I spoke with Abani and Dawes by email, as they celebrate the tenth annual box set, titled Kumi Na Moja, about the selection process, African poetics, and the new book of their collected boxset introductions from the past decade.
Editor’s Note: The following interview was conducted by email in October 2025.
Aiden Hunt: How did the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook series get started?
Kwame Dawes: The boxset series was conceived as a way to create opportunities for several African poets through publication. We considered an anthology series, but found models established by KD in South Carolina and with the Calabash International Literary Festival in which extensive chapbook publications were published to quickly populate the literary landscape. With well-edited and beautifully-designed chapbooks, the boxset was seen as a way to give poets a book publication, while also giving the poetry readership access to contemporary poetry by emerging African poets. Each chapbook has its own ISBN, and the boxset is also sold as a single “anthology.”
Chris Abani: Even for established Western poets, anthologies tend to be reductive, and this is difficult to say because anthologies have often been important. But, let’s take [Robert] Frost for instance. Most readers have only read the three or four poems of Frost that have been anthologized and then speak as though they have “read” Frost. A comprehensive African continental poetry anthology is an impossible task, plus it would only be done once. We wanted something that was alive, highlighted an ever-expanding list of books by these poets, and that will hopefully survive the both of us and flourish under the curation of a fresh set of poets.
How would you describe the “New-Gen African” poetics for readers who’ve never read an African poet? Are there clear differences from poets living elsewhere, as you see with different forms and movements throughout time periods and cultures, or has globalism homogenized poetry to a certain extent for the new generation?
Dawes: All African literature has evolved as a reaction to the Western literary world as have all African societies. The reaction is normal globally when cultures come into contact with each other. African writers have sought to preserve their cultural distinctions which are quite specific to regions and countries, even as they have had to recognize that the waves of cultural engagement have come to shape those cultures. African poetry written in English is as legible to readers of English poetry, but as with all poetry traditions in translation (whether of cultures or languages), it brings a different dimension to our understanding of English language poetry. It would be misleading to expect homogeneity across the African continent, much less across the world.
Abani: The exchange and influence of Africa on the West have been ongoing since and before even colonial impact. The Ethiopian Church, which is the oldest form of Christianity in the world, shaped so much of medieval and latter Christianity and therefore its literature. Not to mention the impact of borrowed languages from these cultures. Many modern English words (shampoo, for example) are Sanskrit. Western ideas of a separate self are as illusory as any ideas of difference. What happens is quite organic; people read African poets and find themselves in the poetry, find a home and an unexpected comfort. People at their core share the same fears, hopes, and loves. We aren’t as complex as we like to think.
Can you tell me about your process for finding and deciding on the chapbooks each year?
Dawes: Each year we reach out to a long list of trusted consultants who have intimate knowledge of African poetry scenes across the continent. These include poets we have published, publishers, festival organizers, critics, scholars, academics, booksellers, and more. We ask them to send us the names of promising poets and to give us contact information for them. We then take that list and do our own research, seeking them out on the internet, and looking for their work in different places. Next, we select about 60 to 100 (this year was 100), and write to them with a simple request.
We invite them to submit a chapbook-length manuscript. They are given two weeks to submit the work. From those submissions we select the work we believe is readiest for publication, and that number has been as low as eight poets and as many as thirteen poets. The work of the selected poets undergoes intimate and detailed editing as the work goes into production. We do a search for important African artists, and approach them to be the featured artists for the year’s boxset. The artists selected are asked to offer art that is used to design each chapbook and the overall boxset. We invite published poets to write a preface for each of the chapbooks in the boxset. Finally, Abani and I write a joint introduction for the entire boxset.
It is quite the operation.
What would you say are your biggest challenges in editing the chapbook series?
Dawes: We have established a very effective system which presents the kind of challenges that we cannot be annoyed about. The biggest is contending with the fact that we can only publish a limited number of poets. The quality of the poets and the chapbooks is exceptionally high, and limiting things to such a small number is hard, but necessary. Of course, we have to find the subvention costs for the publication of these chapbooks. Akashic Books is an excellent partner whose production values and design work is impeccable. Because we are dealing with poetry, we accept that the successful publication of quality work has to be underwritten in some way. We have been able to find the funding to publish these chapbooks for over a decade.
Abani: I will only add one word to what KD has so eloquently said above, and that word is precarity. We always succeed with the partners we have now, but a well-funded endowment will ensure a more stable longevity. Just in case anyone wants to be a benefactor.
Can you tell readers about your other new book, Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry?
Dawes: This book is the brain-child of APBF’s Managing Editor and Assistant Director, Siwar [Masannat]. She is the editor of this gathering of all the joint essays written by Abani and myself as introductions to the chapbook boxsets over the years. Her introduction is a striking work of criticism and consideration. The book helps to present these considerations about contemporary African poetry in one volume.
As you look back at ten years, how have the box sets lived up to your expectations and how might you like to improve in the future?
Dawes: They have done the work we intended. They have introduced over a hundred African poets to the world. Many of these poets have gone on to publish volumes of poetry and to develop impressive careers as published poets. We will never be able to keep up with the talents of poets on a continent as large as Africa, but we believe we have made a dent into the literary landscape for African poets. We have observed the presence of African poets in journals, and with other publishing houses across the US and the UK, since the beginning of the work of the APBF. Frankly, we believe that these chapbooks have served as an introduction to African poetry for many publishers, editors, and scholars. This is a good thing.
What type of effect has your involvement with the African Poetry Book Fund had on your own writing?
Dawes: None at all. It has never been about us. But our lives have been enriched by seeing the work of this army of writers entering the world. The company is a good thing.
Abani: Ase to that, Kwame, ase to that.
Kwame Dawes is the author of numerous books of poetry and other works of fiction, criticism, and essays. His most recent poetry collection, Sturge Town, was published by Peepal Tree Press in the UK and W. W. Norton in the US. Dawes is a professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. He also teaches in the Pacific MFA Program and is the series editor of the African Poetry Book Series, director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and artistic director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. He is a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Dawes is the winner of the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2022, Kwame Dawes was awarded the Order of Distinction Commander Class by the Government of Jamaica, and in 2024, he was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica.
Chris Abani’s prose includes The Secret History of Las Vegas, Song for Night, The Virgin of Flames, Becoming Abigail, GraceLand, and Masters of the Board. His poetry collections include Smoking the Bible, Sanctificum, There Are No Names for Red, Feed Me the Sun, Hands Washing Water, Dog Woman, Daphne’s Lot, and Kalakuta Republic. He holds a BA and MA in English, an MA in gender and culture, and a PhD in literature and creative writing. Abani is the recipient of a PEN America Freedom to Write Award, a Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond Margins Award, a PEN/Hemingway Award, and a Guggenheim fellowship. He won the prestigious 2024 UNT Rilke Prize and was a finalist for the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Born in Nigeria, he is currently on the board of trustees, a professor of English, and director of African Studies at Northwestern University.
Contents
Chapbook Poem: When I Was Straight by Dustin Brookshire
“‘When I Was Straight’ prompted me to think about a common queer experience—how most parents assume their children are ‘straight’ and expect their children to live a ‘straight’ life.” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for October 2025 along with words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: American Girl: Fort Hood, 2023 by Thea Matthews
“[W]eaving in and juxtaposing the lyrics of Tom Petty’s ‘American Girl.’ The song’s themes of desperation, wanderlust, and longing are subverted by Ana’s life and tragedy at Fort Cavazos, previously known as Fort Hood, Texas.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem for October 2025 along with words from the poet.
“It seems such a shame that a beautiful location is just gathering dust and overgrowth, and I wanted to lean into the juxtaposition of that.” Read three poems by Bryana Fern along with a few words about “Women on the Wall.”
Bodies in Transition: Sacred & Perishable by Carissa Natalia Baconguis
“There is a muscular intimacy to the ecosystem of these poems, each one of them creating as vivid a world individually as exists in the collection as a whole.” Read Gray Davidson Carroll’s full review.
“In ‘No Breaks’ I was writing about something I hope I never have to experience. … I tried to keep despair at bay and show some defiance and resilience.” Read two poems by Gerald Yelle along with a few words about “No Breaks.”
November ’25: New Staff, Issue Archive & Donations
Read a note from Editor Aiden Hunt about our new Poetry Readers, the additions of an Issue Archive and a Contributor Fund, Fall poetry submissions, and Gaza.
Chapbook Poem: Two egrets at the edge of a tidal marsh by Rebekah Wolman
“Settling on the mirror form opened the way into the parallels between the original image of the egrets, their reflection, and their ambiguous relationship and the shifting, even reversing, roles of an adult daughter and her aging mother…” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for November 2025 along with words from the poet.
Three Poems by Alexandra Burack
“Subsequent drafts enabled me to … uncover the metaphor of exile, whose meanings are intended to move readers from an experience of alienation to one of discernment of the liberating qualities of outsiderhood.” Read three poems by Alexandra Burack, along with a few words about “To Know Blue From the Color of Snow at Dusk.”
Book Excerpt: Rondo by Yamini Pathak
“The sculpture gardens are located on … the native land of the Lenape people. The poem is a conversation between sculpture, land, and its human and more-than-human inhabitants.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for November 2025, “Rondo” from Her Mouth a Palace of Lamps by Yamini Pathak, along with a few words from the poet.
Two Poems by Yasmin Mariam Kloth
“As I shaped the poem, the olive trees became a witness to a deeper experience—to a region’s ongoing, collective pain. It was the land I wanted to make speak in a place where I did not have words.” Read two poems by Yasmin Mariam Kloth, along with a few words about “Before.”
A Conversation with Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes
“We wanted something that was alive, highlighted an ever-expanding list of books by these poets, and that will hopefully survive the both of us and flourish under the curation of a fresh set of poets.” Read the full interview about the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook series.
Chapbook Poem: Red Tide by Mary Gilliland
“Reflection, research, a public service announcement, an old Zen koan, and 3 weeks of bicycling for groceries with a bandana tied around my nose and mouth inform ‘Red Tide’.” Read the featured Chapbook Poem of the Month for December 2025, “Red Tide” from Red Tide at Sandy Bend, along with a few words from the poet.
Three Poems by Veronica Tucker
“’You Left the Fridge Open Again’ transforms an ordinary domestic moment into a meditation on tenderness and decay. The open refrigerator becomes a quiet altar, its hum a hymn to what lingers after love’s warmth has cooled.” Read three poems by Veronica Tucker, along with a few words about “You Left the Fridge Open Again.”
Book Excerpt: The Samadhi of Words by Richard Collins
“Zen poets, past and present, who experience deep absorption in the grandeur of this world may even gain wisdom through the way of poetry, Shidō (詩道). This is the samadhi of words.” Read the featured Excerpt Poem of the Month for December 2025, “The Samadhi of Words” from Stone Nest by Richard Collins, along with a few words from the poet.
December ’25: Pushcart Prize Nominations
Editor Aiden Hunt announces Philly Chapbook Review’s 2026 Pushcart Prize anthology nominations in this editor’s note and provides links to, and a carousel of, the nominated poems.