Ethiopia Boy by Chris Beckett
The author grew up in 1960s Ethiopia, a country he describes as a 'barefoot empire, home of black-maned lions ...old priests decked out like butterflies and blazing young singers of Ethio-jazz'. This book plunges the reader into praise poems that sing and boast and glory in the colours and textures of this country.
'There is a drive to these poems, a quality of song, a fresh simplicity that neatly sidesteps sentimentality though replete with longing, a feel for the past' --Fred D'Aguiar 'Chris Beckett's poetry is highly original in the way it works with two sharply distinctive traditions in a uniquely engaging style. The language is always fresh and surprising and the sentiments are always heartfelt but in a subtly complex way that raises serious political questions.' --Daljit Nagra
Chris Beckett is a poet and translator based in London. He grew up in Addis Ababa in the 1960s, capital of Haile Selassie’s glamorous barefoot empire (as he writes in the Preface to Ethiopia Boy). Chris has published two enthusiastically reviewed poetry collections from Carcanet, Ethiopia Boy (2013) and Tenderfoot (2020), imitating Ethiopian praise forms to explore issues of love and hunger; also, with Alemu Tebeje, the first ever anthology of Ethiopian Amharic poetry in English, Songs We Learn from Trees (2020). His poem The broom upside down was commended in the 2024 National Poetry Competition and his books as well as individual poems have won or been shortlisted for awards such as the Poetry London Competition, Ted Hughes Award and Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. His poems, reviews and translations have appeared in leading journals like Poetry Review, Wasafiri, PN Review, Words Without Borders, Modern Poetry in Translation, also in the Library of Congress and on BBC radio’s The Verb. Baritone/composer Roderick Williams’ setting, 3 Songs from Ethiopia Boy, was premiered by Chineke! Orchestra in the Southbank Centre in 2019 and repeated as part of their 10th anniversary concert in 2025 and numerous times on BBC Radio 3. Visit Chris Beckett's website.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781906188092 |
| ISBN 10 | 1906188092 |
| Title | Ethiopia Boy |
| Author | Chris Beckett |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Carcanet Press Ltd |
| Year published | 2013-02-28 |
| Number of pages | 64 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |