Frank Chipasula

File:XVIII FdPdM Frank Chipasula.jpg

Frank Chipasula in 2008

Frank Mkalawile Chipasula (born 16 October 1949) is a Malawian writer, editor and university professor, "easily one of the best of the known writers in the discourse of Malawian letters".

Life

Career

Born in Luanshya, Northern Rhodesia, Frank Chipasula attended St. Peter's Primary School on Likoma Island, Soche Hill Day Secondary School, Malosa Secondary School, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, and, finally, the Great East Road Campus of the University of Zambia, Lusaka, where he graduated B.A., in exile, in 1976. Before leaving Malawi, Chipasula had worked as a freelance broadcaster for the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation while studying English and French at the university. In Lusaka, he served as English Editor for the National Educational Company of Zambia (NECZAM), his first publisher, following his graduation from the University of Zambia.

In 1978 Chipasula went into exile in the United States as a result of the Hastings Banda government, studying for his M.A. in Creative Writing at Brown University, a second M.A. in African American Studies at Yale University and gaining a Ph.D. in English literature from Brown University in 1987. Previously a professor of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Howard University, Chipasula has also worked as the education attaché at the Malawian embassy in Washington, D.C.. His first book, Visions and Reflections (1972), is also the first published poetry volume in English by a Malawian writer. As well as poetry, which has been widely anthologised, he has written radio plays and fiction.

In 2018, Frank Chipasula organized the Women's Poetry Festival in Malawi.

Personal life

Since January 10, 1976, Chipasula has been married to Stella, a former school teacher, whom he met in Mulanje, Malawi, in 1972. With her he co-edited The Heinemann book of African women's poetry which was published in 1995. They have two grown children, James Masauko Mgeni Akuzike and Helen Chipo.

Distinctions

• Honourable mention Noma Award, 1985
• BBC Poetry Prize, 1989

Works

Chipasula's works include:

• 51 pages. Poetry.
• 84 pages. Poetry.
• 278 pages. Poetry anthology.
• 25 pages. Poetry.
• 111 pages. Poetry.
• 147 pages. Zambian poetry anthology.
• 227 pages. Anthology.
• pages. Audio disc. Poetry anthology.
• 285 pages. Poetry anthology.

External links

• Biography with portrait.