War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry

About the Author

160 About the Author Charles Cantalpo’s books include literary criticism – Ngugi wa Thiong’o: Texts and Contexts, The World of Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Africa World Press, 1995), A Literary Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes’s Masterpiece of Language (Bucknell University Press, 1991); poetry – Light the Lights (Red Sea Press, 2003), Anima/l Wo/man and Other Spirits (Spectacular Diseases, 1996); poetry in translation: We Have Our Voice: Selected Poetry of Reesom Haile (Red Sea Press, 2000), which is also available on CD (Asmarino.com), We Invented the Wheel (Red Sea Press, 2002), Who Needs a Story? Contemporary Eritrean Poetry in Tigrinya, Tigre and Arabic (Hdri Publishers, 2005); and a memoir, Joining Africa (Michigan State University Press, 2010). Cantalupo’s essays, poetry and translations have appeared in numerous print and online journals, and he has given many lectures and poetry readings throughout America, Europe and Africa. His translations include poetry in Gikuyu, Russian, Tigrinya, Tigre and Arabic. His plays have been produced in the United States, Puerto Rico and Morocco. In 1994, he directed ‘Ngugi wa Thiong’o: Texts and Contexts’, the largest conference ever held on an African writer. With major grants from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, the World Bank and the Norwegian Agency for Development, Cantalupo cochaired ‘Against All Odds: African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century’, a seven-day conference and festival devoted to the presentation and critical discussion of the languages and literatures of all of Africa, held in Asmara, Eritrea, in January 2000. He is the writer and director of the documentary Against All Odds (2007). He is also a co-author of the historic ‘Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures’. He is Professor of English, Comparative Literature and African Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, Schuylkill Campus. ...