4/13/2016

BC Poetry 2016: "100 Days" by Juliane Okot Bitek (University of Alberta Press)



Day 23

Some of us fell between words
& some of us onto the sharp edges
at the end of sentences
& if we were not impaled
we’re still falling through stories that don’t make sense


Who?

Juliane Okot Bitek has never stopped exploring the power of narrative, focusing her passionate essays, poetry, and nonfiction work on political and social issues. Her work has been anthologized and published widely online, in print, and in literary magazines. Some of her writing can be found in West Coast Line, subTerrain, Warscapes.com, African Writing Online, and zocalopoets.com.


What?

100 days... 100 days that should not have been... 100 days the world could have stopped. But did not.

For 100 days, Juliane Okot Bitek recorded the lingering nightmare of the Rwandan genocide in a poem—each poem recalling the senseless loss of life and of innocence. Okot Bitek draws on her own family's experience of displacement under the regime of Idi Amin, pulling in fragments of the poetic traditions she encounters along the way: the Ugandan Acholi oral tradition of her father—the poet Okot p'Bitek; Anglican hymns; the rhythms and sounds of the African American Spiritual tradition; and the beat of spoken word and hip-hop. 100 Days is a collection of poetry that will stop you in your tracks.

Click here to read my interview with Juliane.


When?

Arrived in January 2016.


Where?

Book Launches: April 20th, 4 PM, at the Edmonton Poetry Festival (Edmonton).

Purchases: From the University of Alberta Press website or at your local bookstore. $19.95.


How?

Recalling.



The copyrights of all poems included in the series remain with their authors, and are reprinted with the permission of the publishers.

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