Songs We Learn from Trees
An Anthology of Ethiopian Amharic Poetry
Chris Beckett editor Alemu Tebeje editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Carcanet Press Ltd
Published:28th May '20
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Finalist for the 2021 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. This is the very first anthology of Ethiopian poetry in English, packed with all the energy, wit and heartache of a beautiful country and language. From folk and religious poems, warrior boasts, praises of women and kings and modern plumbing; through a flowering of literary poets in the twentieth century; right up to thirty of the most exciting contemporary Amharic poets working both inside and outside the country. These poems ask what it means to be Ethiopian today, part of a young fast-growing economy, heirs to the one African state which was never colonised, but beset by deep political, ethnic and moral problems.
'This wide-ranging anthology is a pleasure to read. It opens a long overdue window into the way Ethiopians approach the craft of poetry.' - Malika Booker
- Short-listed for The Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry 2021
ISBN: 9781784109479
Dimensions: 216mm x 135mm x 23mm
Weight: unknown
304 pages