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.