Frank Chipasula

Frank Chipasula in 2008

Frank Mkalawile Chipasula (born 16 October 1949) is a Malawian writer, editor and university professor, "easily one of the best of the known writers in the discourse of Malawian letters". ^[1]

Life

Career

Born in Luanshya, Northern Rhodesia, Frank Chipasula attended St. Peter's Primary School on Likoma Island, Soche Hill Day Secondary School, Malosa Secondary School, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, ^[1] and, finally, the Great East Road Campus of the University of Zambia, Lusaka, where he graduated B.A., in exile, in 1976. Before leaving Malawi, Chipasula had worked as a freelance broadcaster for the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation while studying English and French at the university. In Lusaka, he served as English Editor for the National Educational Company of Zambia (NECZAM), his first publisher, following his graduation from the University of Zambia. ^{[2] [3]}

In 1978 Chipasula went into exile in the United States as a result of the Hastings Banda government, studying for his M.A. in Creative Writing at Brown University, a second M.A. in African American Studies at Yale University and gaining a Ph.D. in English literature from Brown University in 1987. ^[4] Previously a professor of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Howard University, Chipasula has also worked as the education attaché at the Malawian embassy in Washington, D.C.. His first book, Visions and Reflections (1972), is also the first published poetry volume in English by a Malawian writer. As well as poetry, which has been widely anthologised, he has written radio plays and fiction. ^[5]

In 2018, Frank Chipasula organized the Women's Poetry Festival in Malawi. ^[3]

Personal life

Since January 10, 1976, Chipasula has been married to Stella, a former school teacher, whom he met in Mulanje, Malawi, in 1972. With her he co-edited The Heinemann book of African women's poetry which was published in 1995. ^[6] They have two grown children, James Masauko Mgeni Akuzike and Helen Chipo.

Distinctions

• Honourable mention Noma Award, 1985
• BBC Poetry Prize, 1989

Works

Chipasula's works include: ^[7]

• Chipasula, Frank Mkalawili (1972). Visions and Reflections. [Lusaka, Zambia]: NECZAM. OCLC   2003124. 51 pages. Poetry.
• Chipasula, Frank Mkalawili (1984). O Earth, Wait for Me. Staffrider series, no. 22. Johannesburg: Ravan Press, Exclusive Books [distributor]. ISBN   9780869752586. OCLC   12107252. 84 pages. Poetry.
• Chipasula, Frank Mkalawile (1985). When my brothers come home : poems from central and southern Africa. Middletown, Connecticut, USA / Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA: Wesleyan University Press. Distributed by Harper & Row. ISBN   9780819550927. OCLC   10072530. 278 pages. Poetry anthology.
• Chipasula, Frank Mkalawili (1986). Nightwatcher, Nightsong. Dangerous writers. Peterborough: Spectacular Diseases. ISBN   9780946904044. OCLC   767793998. 25 pages. Poetry.
• Chipasula, Frank Mkalawili (1991). Whispers in the Wings: Poems. African Writers Series / Heinemann African poets. London: Heinemann. ISBN   9780435911928. OCLC   25388161. 111 pages. Poetry.
• Chipasula, Frank Mkalawili (1991). A Decade in Poetry. Voices in poetry. Lusaka: Kenneth Kaunda Foundation. ISBN   9789982011457. OCLC   31411862. 147 pages. Zambian poetry anthology.
• Chipasula, Stella; Chipasula, Frank Mkalawile, eds. (1995). The Heinemann book of African women's poetry. Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK: Heinemann. ISBN   9780435906801. OCLC   35587241. 227 pages. Anthology. ^[6]
• Chipasula, Frank Mkalawili (2007). On the Shoulders of the Mountain: A Selection of Poems. Makanda, Illinois: EarthCDs. OCLC   156979002. pages. Audio disc. Poetry anthology.
• Chipasula, Frank Mkalawili, ed. (2009). Bending the Bow: An Anthology of African Love Poetry. Carbondale, Illinois, USA: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN   9780809328420. OCLC   283802751. 285 pages. Poetry anthology.

References

1. Osita Ezeliora (2008). "Chipasula, Frank Mkalawile (1949- )". In R. Victoria Arana (ed.). The Facts on File Companion to World Poetry: 1900 to the Present. Infobase Publishing. pp. 103–5. ISBN   978-1-4381-0837-7 . Retrieved 2 August 2012.
2. Stringer, Jenny, ed. (1996). "Chipalula, Frank M(kalawile) (1949-)". The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. Oxford University Press. p. 125. ISBN   978-0-19-212271-1 . Retrieved 2 August 2012.
3. "Frank Chipasula. B. 1949". poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Retrieved 7 November 2024. With Poems by this Poet: In a Free Country, Nightmare, Nightfall, A Love Poem for My Country.
4. Chipasula, Frank Mkalawile (1987). Epiphany blazing into the head: the quest for inner truth and transcendence in W.B. Yeats's verse drama [PhD dissertation]. Brown University. OCLC   41984786. 188 pages.
5. Maja-Pearce, Adewale, ed. (1990). The Heinemann Book of African Poetry in English. Heinemann. ISBN   978-0-435-91323-6 . Retrieved 7 November 2024.
6. Chipasula, Stella; Chipasula, Frank Mkalawile (1995). The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry. Pearson Education. ISBN   978-0-435-90680-1.
7. "Showing 1-10 of 26 Results". search.worldcat.org. OCLC, Inc. Retrieved 7 November 2024.

External links

• "Dr Frank M. Chipasula. Malawian poet and editor". people.africadatabase.org. African People Database. 26 September 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-02-14. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
• "Frank Chipasula". mockingbird.creighton.edu. Omaha, Nebraska: Nebraska Center for Writers, Creighton University. 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-09-28. Retrieved 7 November 2024. Biography with portrait.