African Poetry Book Fund welcomes two additions to the Editorial Board

The African Poetry Book Fund is proud to introduce two new members to the editorial board: Aracelis Girmay and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers.

Aracelis Girmay was born and raised in Santa Ana, California. She received her BA at Connecticut College and an MFA from New York University. A Cave Canem Fellow and Acentos board member, she has been awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Whiting Award for Poetry. She currently teaches at Hampshire College.

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, born at Hillbrow in Johannesburg, is an award-winning South African writer and performance artist. A graduate of the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris, France, she is the author of multiple collections of poetry and plays, and has toured her autobiographical one-woman show, Original Skin, in South Africa and abroad. Among her many awards are the 2009 National Arts Festival Writing Beyond the Fringe Prize, and a 2011 South African Literary Award. She currently lectures in Creative Writing at Wits University in Johannesburg.

Founding editor Kwame Dawes said, “The addition of two remarkable poets and generous spirits in the literary world here and in Africa represents an exciting development in the work of the African Poetry Book Fund.  I have always described this team as a “Dream Team”, and notwithstanding the obvious cliché here, I do think it is a fit description for what we have here.  The addition of Aracelis Girmay and Phillippa Yaa DeVilliers is what I would call a coup for African poetry.”