"We were taught in elementary school that a noun is a name of a person, place or thing. Ancient, medieval and contemporary literature has encouraged lots of conversations around persons and things, but hardly places. Yet places have marked the backbone of every narrative, every art, every work of literature, and in a lot of ways it has been left there- at the back. Voices is picking up places and making it the core of our tale."
There's a new anthology coming for writers (and of course lovers) of literature:
'Voices is an anthology of contemporary art and literature emerging from Africa ... interested in exploring every single place that makes up our world. Voices wants to showcase the various places that makes the world a global village.'As the Editorial team go on to write:
'Voices is as it is called a conglomeration of voices from a place, be it a region, town, county or country. The voices are unique, stemming from various notions and interpretations of different people on this particular place. The anthology places its interest on places rather than ideas or abstract nouns. For us, places reveal people, places have a life of their own that we want to show the world.'If this is something you might be interested in being a part of, Voices is currently accepting submissions 'of all kind' for its first issue - The Ife Issue. On the rationale behind 'this place - Ife':
'Ile-Ife is an ancient Yoruba town in Southwestern Nigeria, Osun State. Also known as Ife, the town is renowned for its place in Yoruba folk myth as the traditional home of Yoruba civilization and doubles as a holy city of humankind. It boasts of art and culture and rich history that stands it out as one of the most desirable archaeological sites in Southwestern Nigeria. These exquisite characteristics of the small city peppered with mysteries ignites the interest to debut this anthology with this place - Ife.'Voices is 'opposed to stereotypical writing' and 'want something dynamic, uncommon and unusual that tells the true story of a place without sugar-coating, yet with clarity on as many sides to the story as are reasonably expected.'
There's still a few weeks to go to be part of this new initiative - the deadline for The Ife Issue is September 15th. Fiction, non-fiction, book reviews, poetry, art and photography, conversations centred on the theme of 'Ife' can be submitted. For more information on Voices and the submission process for The Ife Issue, head over to their website. Good luck!!!!!
