The African Poetry Book Fund’s New Institutional Home! 

The African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) is pleased to announce that it is now housed at Brown University! Over the past seven months, our small but mighty organization has made this institutional transition from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln to Brown as Kwame Dawes (Founding Director) took on a position as Professor in Literary Arts and Lorna Dawes (Co-Primary Investigator of the African Poetry Digital Portal) took on a position as Research and Exploration Librarian at the Libraries. 

Our operations have also moved to Brown University: we now have a beautiful office space in the Rock Library dedicated to the APBF’s projects, where Siwar Masannat (Assistant Director) and our new team member Jae Geralde (Office Coordinator) work in support of APBF’s many (and ever expanding!) projects. Paul Hanson Clark (Web Editor) also continues promoting the APBF, our stellar authors, and African poetry and poetics at Brown University from his home in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

The APBF and our team have been welcomed so warmly by Brown University, and we are thrilled to create new connections at Brown and in Providence, and to keep collaborating with those dedicated to African poetry and poetics in Africa, Nebraska, and across the US and the globe.

Of course, we also look forward to continuing the APBF’s enduring and productive collaborations with the University of Nebraska Press and Akashic Books on publishing brilliant African poets at all stages of their writing journeys.

The APBF’s prizes and submission periods remain the same as before. If you have a question or would like to be in touch, we can now be reached at apbf@brown.edu.