Nii Ayikwei Parkes launches new poetry collection “The Geez.”

Nii Ayikwei Parkes launched his newest poetry collection The Geez, published by Peepal Press, on October 15, 2020. His discussant on the day was Toni Stuart.

Nii Ayikwei Parkes is the author of the hybrid novel, Tail of the Blue Bird (2009) and the poetry collection The Makings of You (2010). He also writes for children under the name K. P. Kojo with one of his titles being Tales from Africa (2017). Following roles at the University of Southampton, California State University, and the University of Aberystwyth, he was founding director of the Aidoo Centre for Creative Writing in Accra, before taking his current role as Producer of Literature and Talks at Brighton Festival.

The UK based writer and poet has a new poetry collection out called The Geez published by Peepal Tree Press. The collection blurb describes it as “a stunning new collection from Nii Ayikwei Parkes, featuring poems which embrace play, love and the ephemeral such as water bodies, blood/heritage, history and gossip; and a healthy dose of music and popular culture.”

The new collection was introduced to the public for the first time on the poet’s YouTube channel on October 15. He was in conversation with South African poet Toni Stuart. For the fifty-four minutes of the session, we listen to Nii reading from the new collection and talking about the motivations for the various poems that were shared on the night.

Watch the whole conversation in full below;

For information about getting this book, please visit Peepal Press.