Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Photo: Francesco Gattoni

Winner of multiple international awards including Ghana’s ACRAG award and France’s Prix Laure Bataillon, Nii Ayikwei Parkes is the author of Tail of the Blue Bird (novel) and The Makings of You (poetry). He is currently working on a crowd-funded collection of short stories, The City Will Love You (2018).

The Power of Normal: Exploring the Notion of Story Structure

May 2018
Nii Ayikwei Parkes

photo: three-shots/pixabay As readers, we all carry prejudices, but acknowledging a wider range of normals makes the difference between “I don’t understand your normal” and “I refuse to...
Meshack Asare in the Pantheon of Ananse

January 2016
Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Meshack Asare, Kathy Neustadt, Josh Hankin, Tess Hankin, and Nii Ayikwei Parkes. Photo by Merleyn Bell. Parkes read the following tribute at the banquet honoring Meshack Asare as the 201...
What to Read Now: Migration Narratives

July 2012
Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Whether seeking upward mobility, pursuing adventure, or escaping war, the characters in these migration narratives unsettle myths and demonstrate how geographic shifts impact everything from ident...
Our love is here to stay

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

March 2011 WLT Clouds gather under a blue moon, like trouble brewing as strange fruit continues to swing – keeping time – while Columbia turntables refuse to spin the song; is vinyl...