Nii Parkes

**Nii Ayikwei Parkes** nyɛla bini dɔɣi so 1April 1974. Bi dɔɣi la United Kingdom ka o lamba yina Ghana. O nyɛla bini wumsi so Ghana ka o nyɛ ŋun nindi poet, ka Sabra, ka publishera ka lan nyɛ sociocultural commentator. O nyɛla nin voɣɔ so ban yuma na bi paayi yuun pɛhinahi ka bi sabira la ni yino, ban yina sub-saharan Africa. Yuuni 2014, bɛ daa bolo n pahi Hay Festival's Prestigious Africa39 project. O daa sabi kpa bihi ban bɛ **K.P.Kojo**.

## Maŋ- lahabali
Bɛ dɔɣi la UK Ka o lamba daa nyɛ ban chaŋ shikuru ni maa ni. Nii Parkes daa nyɛla bini wumsi so Ghana ka o daa nyɛ yuma ata chani anahi.  O daa chaŋ la Achimota School. O tuuli sabu daa nyɛla 1988 ka o daa sabi zan kpa bi shikuru magazine,  The Achimotan. O daa pahi ka bi kpa filla magazine din nyɛ Ghana tuuli shikuru bihi national magazine. O daa nyɛla yuun piya ni ayupon(17years ).

Parkes daa chaŋ Manchester Metropolitan  University din bɛ England.  O daa nyɛla performance poet ka daa lan nyɛ member n ti Black Writer's Group of Commonword. O daa nyɛla Children's poet-in-residence din bɛ Brighton Festival yuuni 2007. O nyɛla ŋun mali hankali pam zan kpa poetry festivals ka lan nyɛ poet-in-residence zan ti poetry café  koro din bɛ London. O nyɛla ŋun  kpɛrigu zan kpa poetry United Kingdom, Europe, Ghana ni United States. Yuuni 2005, o daa nyɛla Associate Artist - In - Residence n ti BBC Radio 3. Yuuni 2007 o daa nyɛla British Council writer - in - residence din bɛ California State University, Los Angeles.  O daa nyɛla bi bili ŋun sabira n ti pahi Owen Sheers ni Choman Hardi. Bi daa laɣim  n niŋ poem on the underground London yiŋa ka o poem maa nyɛ " Tin Roof ". Parkes daa niŋ workshops nima UK ka kpa Writer's Fund ( ban sabira tutupon) n ti Ghana ni di soŋ ban sabira. O daa rikɔdi o CDs dibaayi din nyɛ yaltɔŋa, din n nyɛ Incredible Blues n ti pahi Nocturne of phrase. O daa yihi o boku dibaata na (3 books )_ eye of a boy, lips of a man, M is for Madrigal n ti pahi selfpublished shorter.  O daliri daa nyɛla o bo laŋfu n ti Writers´ Fund. Yuuni 2002 o pahi ka bi kpa  ka lan nyɛ edita kpɛma n ti flipped eye publishing, ka nyɛ ŋun editi fourteen two (editor ), Dance the Guns to silence ( co- editor ni Kadija Sesay ) n ti pahi X-24: Unclassified ( co- editor ni Tash Aw) . Parkes lahabali jɛɛ bɛla Tell Tales : volume I( Tell Tales ) ni The Machanics' Institute Review ( Birkbeck College ), ka nyɛ ŋun mali hankali zɛlli zan kpa fiction manuscript din pahi ayi,  Afterbirth .Yuuni June 2007, o daa pahi New Writing 15 anthology Granta Books  ni daa pubilishe ( zan wuhi solo ). Yuuni 30 ni 31 July 2008, o daa zan o kperigu din nyɛ Play Walking Waterfall n chaŋ Almeida Theatre din bɛ London la, din daa niŋ ka lala saha maa n lu Tiata Fahodzi 2008 saha. Ŋun daa lihi ka di niŋ n nyɛ Femi Elutowoju Jr., ka ban pahi ka di niŋ n nyɛ Jude Akuwudike ni Marcy Dolapo Oni. Di nyɛŋa, o daa zan li chaŋ East Anglia. Yuuni June 2009, Jonathan Cape daa  zan Parkes boku shali din nyɛ Tail of the Blues Bird n wuhi solo ( pubilishe ). Bi daa zan lala boku maa pahi 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Sika Fakambi daa lɛbigi lala boku maa French ka daa zan li wuhi salo ka mani Notre Quelque Part. Di daa di la Prix Baudelaire, Prix Mahogany ni Prix Laure Bataillon ka Lire daa piili leading literary magazine zan ti Best First Foreign Book of the year ka di lan nyɛ boku shali din bɛ pishe ( top 20 books ) France ni zan wuhi salo 2014. O nyƐla ŋun mali bansim pam ka o yuli yina duniya  karimbu luŋa pam, di shaŋa n nyɛ Nuyorican poets cafe, New York; Royal Festival Hall din bɛ London ni Java, Paris ka di bɛ tooni zan kpa sabbu ( writing ) ni performance workshops. O daa nyɛla resident poet  n bɛ Borders Bookstores ka daa niŋ di o goli goli Open Mike din bɛ Charing Cross Road yuuni 2001 hali ni 2005 sunsuuni. Yuuni 2009 o daa lɛbi Book Trust's online writer - in - residence.Yuuni 2010 o daa lɛbi writer - ni - residence n ti Charity First Story. Ŋuni n lihiri African Writers' Evening series din bɛ poetry Cafe din bɛ Covent Garden.

Yuuni 2012, Parkes daa zani n ti Ghana Poetry Parnassus din bɛ Southbank centre London yiŋa, ka di nyɛ international poetry festival din galisi ka UK mini London Olympics niŋ. Yuuni 2014, University of Tubingen daa gahi nuu n boli Parkes n ti pahi o sabisabiri taba ( his follow writes ). Ban n nyɛ  Taiye Selasi, Priya Basil ni Chika Unigwe, bini daa mali Writers' Lectureship,  ka Selasi boli Afropolitan Literature. Yuuni 2014-15, Parkes daa nyɛla Royal Literary Fund Fellow din bɛ University of Aberystwyth, Wales.  Bi daa piigo pahi niribi pihinahi yinka (39) ban yi gban sabila tiŋgbani na ( Africa ) ka sabira ka bi yuma na bi paayi yuun pihinahi din bɛ World Book Capital Africa39 Project, yuuni 2014. Parkes daa chaŋ Africa University College of Communications ( AUCC ) din bɛ Accra Ghana, [16] ka daa zɛni Board of Trustees of Pan- Africa Literary initiative Writivism n ti pahi o sabisabiri taba Zukiswa Wanner, Chika Unigwe, Noviolet Bulawayo, E.C.Osondu ni Lizzy Attree hali 2015.

## O nyɛ so
Parkes nyɛla ŋun yina J.C.E. Parkes daŋ bɛɛ zuliya shali din bɛ Sierra Leone Creole civil servant

## O Kundivira shaŋa
Parkes sabbo pam nyɛla din bɛ luŋa pam, di shaŋa n nyɛ Granta, The Guardian, Index on Censorship, International PEN Magazine, The Liberal, The Mechanics' Institute Review, Poetry News, poetry Review, Sable, Statement ( CSULA ), storyteller Magazine, X Magazine and Wasafiri.

### Lahabali din pa yɛlmaŋli ( Fiction )
•Tail of the Blue Bird (novel), Jonathan Cape, 2009; Vintage, 2010, ISBN 978-0099526124.

•Translated into Dutch (by Ronald Cohen) as De blauwe vogel, Q, 2010, ISBN 978-90-2143-846-7.

•Translated into Japanese (by Kazue Daikoku) as Aoitori no Shippo, Web Press Happa-no-Kofu, 2014, .

•Translated into French (by Sika Fakambi) as Notre Quelque Part,[6] Zulma, 2014, ISBN 978-2843047701.

•Translated into Spanish (by Magdalena Palmer) as El Enigma del Pájaro Azul, Club Editor, 2017, ISBN 978-84-7329-217-7.

•Translated into Catalan (by Xavier Pàmies) as L'enigma de l'ocell blau, Club Editor, 2017, ISBN 978-84-7329-216-0

### Yɛtɔɣataɣamalsi ( poetry )
eyes of a boy, lips of a man, Flipped Eye Publishing, 1999; 2nd edition 2005, .

• M zan mi n ti Madrigal: Poems di baa apoin (seven poems ) , tall lighthouse, 2004, .

• The Makings of You, Peepal Tree Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1845231590.

• The Geez, Peepal Tree Press, 2020, ISBN 9781845234775.

### Bihi Litricha ( Children's Literature )

• The Parade, Frances Lincoln Publishers, 2010 (as K.P. Kojo)

• Tales From Africa, Puffin Classics, 2017 (as K.P. Kojo)

• The Ga Picture Alphabet, Kane Series, 2020
### Sabbu maana ( As editor )

• Fourteen Two: Twenty Eight Love Poems, flipped eye publishing, 2004, ISBN 978-0954224790

• O mini Kadija Sesay, Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems zan ti Ken Saro-Wiwa, flipped eye publishing, 2005, ISBN 978-1905233014 n ti pahi Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Kevin Powell & Jayne Cortez tuma

• O mini Tash Aw, X-24: Unclassified, flipped eye publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-0954157012 n ti pahi  Naomi Alderman & Daniel Alarcon tuma

• South of South, Peepal Tree Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1845231545 n ti pahi  Monica Arac de Nyeko & Junot Díaz) tuma

• Filigree: Contemporary Black British Poetry, Peepal Tree Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1845234263 n ti pahi Roger Robinson & Tishani Doshi ) tuma

### O Sabbu shaŋa ( selected essays and articles )

# "No individual 'fathered' modern African literature",https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/02/father-modern-african-literature-achebe The Guardian, 2 December 2009.

2. "Ants of Accra", Granta 112, 2 September 2010.

3. "Nii Ayikwei Parkes. My London: Blythe Hill Fields", The Financial Times, 8 August 2014.

4. "The Responsibility of Being Other", Writivism, 4 July 2017.

## Kpanmaŋ pina
1.Yuuni 2003 o daa di Farrago Best Overall Poetry Performance pini 

2. Yuuni 2004 o daa di Farrago Best Overall Poetry Performance pini 

3. Yuuni 2007 o daa di Ghana's National ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy pini 

4. Yuuni 2009 o daa nyɛla Finalist for the UK YCE Publishing Award

4. Yuuni 2010 bi daa piigo pahi Commonwealth Writers' Prize (for Tail of the Blue Bird)

6. Yuuni 2012 o daa nyɛla  USBBY Outstanding International Books List (for The Parade, as K.P. Kojo)

7. Yuuni 2014 Prix Baudelaire, Prix Mahogany, and Prix Laure Bataillon (for Notre Quelque Part)

8. 2020: Poetry Book Society Recommendation for The Geez

## Kundivira



Pubu :Afrocuration 2023