(Press Release) New Anthology to Promote Anglophone Cameroonian Writing

New writing from Anglophone authors in Cameroon is featured in an anthology to be released in July. 
 
The Spirit Machine and other new short stories from Cameroon is the first in a new series of books aiming to promote emerging Anglophone writers unknown in the West but “whose writing tells wonderful new stories in wonderful new ways”.
 
Edited and introduced by Dr Emma Dawson, of Keele University in Staffordshire, UK, The Spirit Machine will be published on July 1 by Critical, Cultural and Communications Press in the World Englishes Literature Fiction series. 

Featured writers include Ba’bila Mutia, Wirndzerem G Barfee and John Nkemngong Nkengasong, the current president of the Anglophone Cameroonian Writers’ Association.
 
Dr Dawson, whose PhD focused on new writing in English, visited Cameroon to meet the writers who had submitted their work.
 
She said: “'Cameroon is largely Francophone so travelling there to meet Anglophone writers was really exciting - they are a select handful, constantly reasserting their identity in Cameroon. I met authors at the University of Yaounde, at a writers' conference held at the British Council offices and in their homes.

“As well as meeting with writers I got the chance to research the history of writing in English in Cameroon which helped me write the introduction to the book. I also worked closely with the writers whose work was chosen for the anthology; we worked through a series of edits and changes until we were all happy with what we had - and I am really delighted with how this anthology has turned out. It has already been described by academics in Cameroon as a milestone in the history of Cameroonian writing in English.”

Dr Dawson is currently editing anthologies of short stories from Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya as part of the same series. 

• The Spirit Machine and other new short stories from Cameroon, edited with an introduction by Emma Dawson, is published by CCC Press on July 1, 2009, priced £9.99. More information can be found at http://www.cccpress.co.uk   
  
• To request a review copy of the book please contact CCC Press on cccpress@googlemail.com or enquiries@cccpress.co.uk
  
• To arrange interviews with Emma Dawson please contact Hannah Hiles, Keele University Media & Communications Officer, on 01782 733857 or h.e.hiles@kfm.keele.ac.uk

Dr Emma Dawson with Ba’bila Mutia, author of title story The Spirit Machine, holding the famous Western African ''kola-nut''. 

Comments

[Shadow And Act]

I'm pleased to have stumbled upon your blog, as a Cameroonian who has been so far and so long removed from Cameroon.

Thanks for the notice on the above anthology. It's one that I'll be looking for upon its release.

Cheers and I'll be reading!