Nii Ayikwei Parkes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, 2015

Nii Ayikwei Parkes (born April 1, 1974 in Lincolnshire , United Kingdom ) is a Ghanaian writer and journalist who writes short stories, articles, lyrics and rap. He also uses the pseudonym KP Kojo.

Parkes was born in Great Britain to Ghanaian parents and grew up in Ghana . He first attended Ann's Preparatory School North Industrial Area and then the Achimota School in Accra . He later studied at Manchester Metropolitan University in England. During this time he also began to poetry and joined the local poet scene and the Black Writer's Group of Commonword .

Parkes currently lives and works in London , where he a. a. organized and moderated the series African Writers' Evening in the literary café in Covent Garden . His ability as a champion of the Farrago UK poetry slam and rap copywriter enables him to reach children and young people with an emigrant background and to convey artistic empowerment through creative writing workshops. His poetry slam texts are documented on the two CDs Incredible Blues and Nocturne of Phrase . He also works as an editor at the small independent publisher flipped eye publishing . In Ghana, he set up an authors' fund that aims to popularize creative writing among the country's youth.

Together with the writers Taiye Selasi , Priya Basil and Chika Unigwe, he completed the Tuebingen Poetics Lecturer in 2014. The four represent what Taiye Selasi calls “Afropolitan Literature”.

His first novel, Tail of the Blue Bird , came in June 2009, the publisher Jonathan Cape out and reached the shortlist of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010. The African city person and coroner Kayo determined in a village in the hinterland of Ghana because of the death of the mistress of a minister . In Germany, too, this crime novel with the German title Die Spur des Bienenfressers became a bestseller and reached a. a. 8th place in the KrimiWelt bestseller list of the best crime novels of 2010. As a production by WDR in 2013, the 54-minute radio play of the same name was created in an adaptation by Maria Franziska Schüller and directed by Thomas Leutzbach .

Works

  • Eye of a boy, lips of a man , 1999
  • Timbooktu - An African American Poetic Oddesey , 2002
  • Peace Poems , 2003
  • Fourteen Two , 2004
  • M is for Madrigal , 2004
  • Tell Tales Vol. 1 , 2004
  • Poetry on a Plate , 2004
  • Tail of the Blue Bird , Jonathan Cape Edition (imprint by Randomhouse), London 2009
  • The Makings of You , Peepal Tree Press, 2010

See also

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ Parkes author profile at the British Council
  2. ^ Profile of the author at Unionsverlag
  3. ↑ Radio play version of "Bienenfressers" , Deutschlandfunk
personal data
SURNAME Parkes, Nii Ayikwei
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kojo, KP (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ghanaian writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Lincolnshire , UK