"In this meditative and quietly lyrical approach, Chielozona Eze marks himself in this new African poetics not as a voice of easy protest, not as the voice of a bombast and rhetorical turn, but as the voice of an African poet in the twenty-first century trying to make sense of all the hunger, anger, war, loss, and desecration that has haunted his life and the lives of many Africans but remains always poised on that tender grace, that ease of dance, that transubstantiation that works an alchemy that is not about the outcome but always about the struggle, the engagement, and the terms thereof." - Chris Abani, Board of Trustee Professor of English, Northwestern University "This collection is a fitting memorial to a war still unatoned for and its accompanying sense of bereavement and lack of closure. In tune with a pervasive sense of loss and quiet recollection, the poems are meditative, packing a punch in their ambling profundity; Chielozona Eze does not blame; he speaks of introspection and love." - Amatoritsero Ede, Publisher & Managing Editor, Maple Tree Literary Supplement.

Author Biography

CHIELOZONA EZE grew up in Amokwe, Nigeria. He studied philosophy at St. Joseph's Major Seminary, Ikot Ekpene; Catholic theology with the Jesuits in Innsbruck, Austria, philosophy/literature and creative writing at Purdue University, USA. He is currently professor of English and African literature at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago. He has published poems and short stories in journals such as Eclectica, Wasafiri, MTLS and Northeast Review. He was shortlisted for the inaugural Brunel University African Poetry Prize in 2013. In 2016 he was selected as one of the new generation African poets whose chapbooks were published by the African Poetry Book Fund. His chapbook is titled Survival Kit.