Tag: Literary Festivals

KWAO JONATHAN TETTEH FROM GHANA; #BABISHAI2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

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Kwao Jonathan Tetteh (Courtesy photo)

1.        What drew you to enter for the competition?

 

As a poet, I haven’t participated in any literary competition like this,

so I intended to give it a try when I came across the call for submissions

for the Babishai Niwe Haiku contest.

 

2.      Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?

Yeah! I really do love Haiku but I never penned down any until I saw the

call for submissions. It’s amazing that one among my first three Haikus I

had scribbled made it on the shortlist. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I was

totally surprised because I least expected it.

Thereafter my entry into the contest, I have had a Haiku published in the

Mamba Journal and I’m proud of that.

 

3.     What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?

 Wonderful! reading great Haikus emanating from great minds, each and

every Haiku deserves to be on the shortlist and I know it will be a

herculean task for the judges declaring the winners.

Congratulations to every brain behind these powerful haikus on the list.

 

4.  What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

I think platforms like literary festivals are really encouraging for

poets to expose their literary works to the world. Contests will always

motivate the writer to keep scribbling.

Poets as well must be self-inspired to inspire the world.

 

5. If your 2017 haiku submission were food, what would it be?

 It will surely be ‘Banku’ an energy giving food prepared with corn and

cassava dough relished by virtually ever Ghanaian. It is one of the most

popular food in Ghana enjoy with all kinds of soup, stew and hot paper

before and after an energy sapping work.

Everybody likes it!

 

Read Kwao’s haiku here

 

under the bright moon,

fairy tales bring chill bumps

around log-fires

 

We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.

#BABISHAI2017 POETRY FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

 

The full winning haikus are here:

http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

 

OSEMWENGIE ZION FROM BENIN CITY, FEELS AT HOME WITH THE HAIKU

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Osemwengie Zion (Courtesy photo)

  WHAT DREW YOU TO ENTER FOR THE COMPETITION?

Having stopped writing haiku for some time, the competition came as a path leading one home and I couldn’t help but follow. When I wrote my first haiku, I had a deep connection with it but gradually, the love started to wear out till we became silent lovers on separate shores bearing broken memories of the sweet past.

So when submissions were called for, I hurried to write mine not mainly for the contest but as a way of an errant coming back. A lover returning home after all is spent.

  DO YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR STORY WITH HAIKU?

The first haiku I wrote was in 2014 for a contest organised on Facebook to promote haiku. When I read about it, I rushed to learn a few things about the style. It was not just a style but a world of its own. It was beauty locked in a small room. However, after that time, I wrote quite a number of them until the love wore out.

  WHAT DO YOU FEEL GENERALLY TOWARDS THE SHORTLIST?

Haiku is melting a century into the body of a decade. It is telling so many in very few. The task before the poet is a very taxing one and anyone who can write such poems is a miracle.

The shortlist is indeed magic and the writers are a miracle. The poems are beautiful.

 What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

Writing in times like this is difficult but not impossible. Writing should not be seen as a substitute for anything but as a soul without which one can not live. To keep writing, place value on it and see it as breath. Motivation comes from within and the value we place on things determines how we see them.

    IF YOUR 2017 SUBMISSION WERE FOOD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

First, I’m glad it isn’t food as the meat of a man may be another’s poison.

But, if it were, it would have been Éwa Ágoyin, a special kind of beans.

Only those who suffer amnesia would forget the taste in a hurry.

We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.

#BABISHAI2017 POETRY FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

The full winning haikus are here:

http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html