Eveiyman's
classics

EVERYMAN  Millenium  Li-
brary  described  as  repre-
senting the finest tradition of
British book design and pro-
duction, is printed on wood-
free,  acid-free  paper.
Everyman's  Millenium  Li-
brary  comprises  two hun-
dred and fifty outstanding ex-
amples of world literature in
English  spanning  the clas-
sics,  European  works  in
translation  and  Common-
wealth writers, in addition to
mainstream  English  litera-
ture of all periods. The library
includes some new titles of
regional significance such as
Mabinogion  and  Scottish
Chaucerians,  and  modern
African  classics  including
ChinuaAchebe's Things Fall
Apart.

The 

first  batch  of
Everyman's classics has al-
ready  been  distributed  to
secondary  schools  in  the
United Kingdom. One thou-
sand and five hundred sets
of  books  will  also  be pre-
sented to schools, colleges
and British Council libraries
in a total of forty-five Com-
monwealth  and developing
world countries.

The gift of the Everyman
Millenium  Library  has been
made  possible  by  a
Millenium  Commission
grant,  Everyman's  Library,
generous  donations  from
various British charities, and
with the  help of the  British
Council.

The editions  sighted in
some West African branches
of the British Council library
recently will be delivered in
batches  of  fifty  every  six
months until spring 2000.

GLENDORA  BOOKS  SUPPLEMENT

•  ISSUE NUMBER THREE/FOUR •  1998 •

Ifowodo,  fifth  on first  row,  among  participants  at  the Rotterdam  poetry
festival.

Ifowodo's  Free Word Award

THE 'Free Word Award' for  1998 was received

by the young Nigerian poet, Ogaga  Ifowodo.
Awarded by the organisation, Poets of All  Nations
in the Netherlands, it is an award given in the
main to writers in distress, particularly to those

African  Theatre

A NEW Journal  African  Theatre an annual publication, will
offer a focus for research, critical discussion, information and
creativity in the field of African drama and performance. The
editors,  Professors  Martin  Banham  (University  of Leeds)
James Gibbs (University of the West of England)  and Femi
Osofisan (University of Ibadan) note that the publication's out-
look for each  issue  would be to concentrate  on a specific
theme, carry full reviews of outstanding productions of, and
publications on, African theatre as well as include the text of
one previously unpublished play from an African writer.

The maiden issue on 'Theatre in Development' (date of
publication; September  1998)  features  reviews  and  essays
around the work of national playwrights including Alemseged
Tesfai, Zakes Mda and Alec Dickson. Field reports also focus
on organisations, among which are  The Performance Studio
Workshop in Lagos and The Eritean Community Theatre.

Two succeeding numbers of African  Theatre have been
committed to 'playwrights and politics'and  'Southern African
Theatre & Performance.1  Maximum  length of contributions:
five thousand words. Editorial address - African  Theatre, 8
Victoria Square, Bristol BS8 4ET, UK.

in gaol or in danger of death for  opinions
arising through their creative  enterprise.

Ifowodo was arrested  in November  1997

near Nigeria's border with Benin  Republic
along with a fellow writer and journalist,
Akin Adesokan, on his way  from  the  United
Kingdom where he had been in attendance  at
the special Commonwealth Session on
Nigeria in Edinburgh

The incriminating item on Akin

Adesokan's person had been a photo-card of
Ifowodo with Wole Soyinka, at the  time
Nigeria's most priced exile.

Following his imprisonment  between

November  1997 and April  1998, Ifowodo was
adopted  a honorary member  of the  PEN
centres in Germany and Canada  as well as
the recipient of the Barbara  Goldsmith
Freedom-to-write  award.

Born in May 1966, he was a national

student  activist while at the university  and
is currently  a lawyer  and human  rights
activist under the Civil Liberties
Organisation in Lagos.

His first  collection of poetry  Homelands

and  Other Poems was published in  1998 as  a
Kraftgriots  title, a literary imprint  of Kraft
Books in Ibadan. The main poems however
have appeared in anthologies,  journals  and
in the literary columns of Nigerian  newspa-
pers.