CHARLES CANTALUPO

Charles Cantalupo's books include literary criticism – Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Texts and Contexts and The World of Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Africa World Press), A Literary Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes's Masterpiece of Language (Bucknell University Press) and Poetry, Mysticism, and Feminism: from th' nave to the chops (Spectacular Diseases) – poetry – Anima/l Wo/man and Other Spirits (Spectacular Diseases) and The Art of Hope – and poetry in translation: We Have Our Voice: Selected Poetry of Reesom Haile, which is also available on CD (Asmarino.com), and We Invented the Wheel. Cantalupo’s essays and poetry have appeared in numerous journals, and he has given many lectures and poetry readings throughout America, Europe and Africa.* His translations include poetry in Gikuyu, Russian, and Tigrinya. His plays have been produced in America, Cameroon, Puerto Rico and Morocco. In 1994, he directed Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Texts and Contexts, the largest conference ever held on an African writer. He was co-chair of Against All Odds: African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century, a seven-day conference and festival devoted to the presentation and critical discussion of the languages and literatures of all of Africa, held in Asmara, Eritrea, in January, 2000, and he continues as co-director of the initiative. He is a co-author of the historic "Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures." Professor of English, Comparative Literature and African Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, he is married with four children and lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 100 yards north of the grave of Hilda Doolittle (H.D.).

Recent poetry in abacus, about.com, AI Performance, Angel Exhaust (London), apex of the M, Arras, asmarino.com, Brief, BullHead, Drunken Boat, First Intensity, Exquisite Corpse, Intimacy (UK), Left Curve, Light and Dust, Mirage #4 Period(ical), New Virginia Review, Object Permanence (Glasgow), Oasia, Oasis (London), Osiris, Salt Hill, Samizdat, Shearsman (London), Stone Hill, Sulfur, Studia Mystica, Subvoicive Poetry (UK), Talisman, Titanic Operas, The Edgar Allan Poe Review and Via;

essays on poetics in apex of the M, Bayto (London), BullHead, Connect, Samizdat, The African Experience (South Africa), Talisman and Wasi (Blantyre, Malawi); other scholarly essays in Annales Aequatoria, Bestia, Language and Style, Left Curve, MultiCultural Review, New Comparisons, Paintbrush, PN Review, Prose Studies, Restoration and Tamkeng Review;

recent poetry readings at The Africa Centre (London), Alliance Francaise (Asmara, Eritrea), Biblio’s (New York City), Canessa Park Gallery (San Francisco), The Ear Inn (NYC), Kimako Blues People and Weequahic Park Association (Newark, NJ), Malawi Literary Festival (Blantyre), "New Language: Russian and American Poetry Today" Festival (Stephens Institute), People’s Poetry Gathering (NYC), Revolution Books (NYC), Subvoicive (London), SUNY Buffalo Poetics Program, Tel Aviv University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Delaware, University of New Hampshire, University of Richmond, Yale University, University of Asmara, Northwestern University, Bardfest Berks (PA), Parkland Area Library (PA), Bowery Poetry Club (NYC).

Critical commentary on the poetry of Charles Cantalupo


Cantalupo has sifted … deep simplicity into English poetry prophecy. If you want to live in the World of Poetry, this is your text!

` Bob Holman
Proprietor, Bowery Poetry Club


A branch off the modernist tree … Cantalupo can only be described as Joseph Conrad filtered through the prism of Gertrude Stein.

Robert Archambeau
Samizdat


Critical commentary on Charles Cantalupo’s translations of Reesom Haile


Reesom Haile’s spare poetic line in Charles Cantalupo’s translations carries the weight of incisive image, narrative clarity, irony plus a droll humor that speaks even after you finished reading.

Amiri Baraka


Reesom Haile is that rarest of beings, an Eritrean poet made vivid in translation by Charles Cantalupo!

Andrei Codrescu
Exquisite Corpse


Dialogue between African languages is vital. But so is that between African languages and non-African languages. This collaboration between Reesom haile and Charles Cantalupo shows one way in which that beautiful legacy can be shared.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o


Back to Main Back to April Calendar