Author: rachelebower

There are some excellent things going on in South Yorkshire at the moment. The Sheaf Poetry Festival has an awesome line-up of events, including a special Verse Matters on Thursday 23rd at Sheffield Theatre Deli with Vanessa Kisuule, Caleb Femi, Rupinder Kaur and Otis Mensah. Tickets are still available for the other Sheaf Poetry Festival … Continue reading Sheaf Poetry Festival & Migration Matters 2019 →

I was delighted to hear that my short story, 'Homing' was shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize 2019. There are some brilliant stories shortlisted, and they are all available to read online so do check them out. 'Homing' is part of a new short story collection I am working on, so watch this … Continue reading White Review Short Story Prize 2019 →

Last week, I was lucky enough to visit the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition at the British Library, curated by Claire Breay. I was invited to see the exhibition, along with two other fabulous Sheffield poets (Joe Kriss and Otis Mensah) as part of the British Library/ Poet in the City commission. The idea of the project … Continue reading Listen, I have heard many old tales… →

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been doing some work at the Hull History Centre, trying to track down a Nigerian poet, Minji Ateli (neé Karibo) who was at the University of Ibadan  in the 1960s. Karibo contributed several poems to The Horn, a Nigerian student poetry magazine edited by J.P. Clark and modelled on Poetry and Audience (Leeds). Karibo’s … Continue reading Poetry, parenting and Nigeria →

The African Studies Association UK biennial conference took place at the University of Birmingham, 11-13 September. Jarad Zimbler and I ran a stream called “African Literature: Communities, Collaborations, Crafts & Crossings”. The aim of this stream was to consider the ways in which literary works and their authors have moved within, across, into and out … Continue reading Crafts of World Literature at the ASAUK →

My new poetry pamphlet, Moon Milk, is now available to buy. We launched the book on a lovely sunny morning in Sheffield at Haggler's Corner last week. Moon Milk was listed as one of the Yorkshire Post's 'Top 5 Pick of the Best Books' last week, and on Friday, I chatted to Rony Robinson at … Continue reading Launch of Moon Milk →

Come and join us next Thursday morning (19th July) at Hagglers Corner for the baby-friendly launch of Moon Milk - my new pamphlet published by Valley Press. There will also be a guest reading from the wonderful poet Kate Garrett-Nield. We'll be in the beautiful courtyard at Haggler's if the weather is nice! Come and try some … Continue reading Book Launch: Moon Milk →