• GLENDORA BOOKS SUPPLEMENT ISSUE NUMBER THREE/FOUR • 1998 B 0 U Publisher Olakunle Tejuoso Editor-in-chief Dapo Adeniyi Graphics Consultant Felix Omorogbe Production Consultant Dayo Anthony Systems Manager Yemi Fakunle Marketing/Advert Director Fidelis Akpom Jnr. Glendora Books Supplement (ISSUE NOs. 3 & 4) is published quarterly by Glendora International (Nigeria) Limited. Tel: 686870, 680089/2692762 or Fax: Lagos 2618083 or e/mail: 105271,11 ©CompuServe.com. CORRESPONDENCE Africa: Glendora Review, 168, Awolowo Road, P. O. Box 50914, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria Tel: 01-2692762 North America: 7471. Watt Avenue, Suite 109-253 North Highlands, CA 95660 Europe: Glendora Review, 16, Skelley Road, London E154BA, U.K. DISTRIBUTION: North America B. De Boer, 113 East Central st, Nutley, NJ 07110. Africa/Europe: Contact: Toyin Tejuoso, Glendora, P. O. Box 50914, Falomo, Lagos, Nigeria. Phone: 2692762. Fax: 2618083 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopy- ing or otherwise without the prior written, consent of the publisher. Send all editorial correspondence and subscription enquiries to addresses above. For more about subscription and advertising information, call Lagos 686870, 680089/2692762 or Fax: Lagos 2618083 or e/mail: 105271,11 @ compuserve.com. Farah Wins the Neustadt THE writer, Nurudeen Farah was named the 1998 win- ner of the Neustadt international prize for literature, widely regarded as the most prestigious international literary prize after the Nobel prize. The prize is conferred by the University of Okla- homa and its international journal, World Literature Today. Pre- vious winners have included Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1972), Eliza- beth Bishop (1976), Czeshaw Milosz (1978) and Octario Paz (1982). Nurudeen Farah who had been residing in Northern Nigeria since 1992 became the first African to win the Neustadt in its twenty- seven year history. The Los Angeles Times in the month of Decem- ber also selected his latest book of fiction entitled SECRETS (pub- lished by Arcade, New York as one of the best fiction books pub- lished in the United States in 1998 even as Village Literary Supple- ment, New York voted the same work as one of the best twenty novels to appear in 1998. The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and World Literature Today, the oldest continously published international literary quarterly in the United States. The Prize consists of $40,000, a replica of an eagle feather cast in silver, and an award certificate. It is conferred biennially in even-numbered years. Funding for the prize has been ensured in perpetuity by a generous endowment from the Neustadt family of Ardmore, Oklahoma. Established in 1969 as the Books Abroad International Prize for Literature , then renamed the Books Abroad/Neustadt Prize in 1972 before assuming its present name in 1976, the Neustadt Prize is the first international literary award of this scope to originate in the United States and is one of the very few international prizes for which poets, novelist, and playwrights are equally eligible. The charter of the Neustadt Prize stipulates that the award be given in recognition of outstanding achievement in poetry, fic- tion, or drama and that it be conferred solely on the basis of liter- ary merit. Any living author writing in any language is eligible, provided only that at least a representative portion of his or her work is available in English, French, and/or Spanish-the three languages used in jury deliberations. The prizs may serve to crown a lifetime's achievement or to di- rect attention to an important body of work that is still de- veloping. The Prize is not open to applica- tion. < * *: A new interna- tional jury of 12 out- standing writers is selected to decide the winner each Neustadt Prize. Membership of the jury is determined by of C O V ER P H O T O G R A P H: Jide Adeniyi-Jones Shows aerial view of Cape Town through the mountains. Patch of land in the middle of the water is Robben Island. Inner back cover » AFRICAiMCS AHCti ! • « « # •• cotLOQue tmTmtt/KftOHtu, ORCANIS6 PAft L'S-QUlPfc D£ RECHERCHE "CUS-TUMS ANGLO-SAXONNES" (CASi . . . . • . . . ; • • . • • .• Niyi Osundare « I n n er front cover the Editor of World Literature Today (who is the only permanent member and Chair of the Jury) in con- sultation with the journal's Editorial Board and the President of the University. Each juror nominates one author for the Prize. All nominations are released publicly six months prior to the jury meeting. The jurors convene for 2- 3 days at the University of Oklahoma (usually in February or March of even-numbered years) for their deliberations. The President of the University an- nounces the jury's decision once it is reached. The award ceremonies take place 2-4 months later at the University, and a special issue of World Litera- ture Today is subsequently devoted to the laureate's work. Born in 1945 in Baidoa, Somalia, Farahhas been living in exile since 1976, in the early days of the late Siyad Barre's regime in Mogadishu. His novels include Naked Needle, his debut which was promptly banned in Somalia, Maps and Sweet and Sour Milk for which he was awarded the English Speaking Union Literary Award in 1980. He has also authored short stories, plays and film scripts. His upcoming non-fiction book tentatively en- titled Awake When Asleep is based on Somali refu- gees in Africa and Europe, slated for publication at the end of 1999 by Cassel, London and New York. ISSUE NUMBER THREE/FOUR • 1998 • Thresholds in Anglophone African Literatures THE very first conference on Anglophone African Literatures to be held at the Uniyersite de Toulouse-Le Mirail, France, also rep- resented as the last of the Millenium, is to convene between the 4th and 6th of February, 1999. Expected speakers, including Wole Soyinka of Nigeria, Kojo Laing of Ghana, Samuel Millogo of Burkina Faso, Chris Dunton of South Africa and Odia Ofeimun also of Nige- ria, are mostly Anglophone African writers and scholars who are to contribute on topics surrounding the theme Thresholds. Thresholds itself as an idea is selected for its topi- cality in the context of Af- rican writing and criti- cism Howards a new millenium. The confer- ence will be expected to encompass the literary, critical and historical is- sues of a multi-faceted continent 'which are linked with the notions of passage and transition along with those of trangression and subver- sion'. Additionally, Thresh- olds or boundaries - whether to be crossed or to be avoided - would call for some kind of appraisal - critical Thresholds in Af- rican literatures within the context of cultural and political realities but also in connection with literary theories, 'post-colonial', 'post-independence', 'post modern' and 'post Marx- ist'. Other subthemes such as Subversion of Genres and Forms and Threasholds of Literary Translation would con- sider orality against writ- ing, ritual against drama, written poetry against performance poetry and translating African lan- guages into English and French, French into English, English into French and Pidgin English into French. Concurrent with the conference, Nigerian poet and academic, Niyi Osundare will be awarded an honourary doctorate of the University. Also, key presentations from the conference are billed to appear in Anglophonia I Caliban, of Universities du Mirail press.