Tribute to Julius Chingono from Peter Thompson

"I first got to know Chingono's poetry, and was moved by its economy and dry comment. When I discovered his short prose, in the volume Together, I was overwhelmed by the clarity and force of his narrative gift (and I'm still tempted to say: poetic gift) .

Together will be a great testament, and I sincerely hope that we are able to find and publish more of his work."

Peter Thompson teaches Romance languages and literatures at Roger Williams University in the USA, and has been instrumental in getting Julius and John Eppel's collection Together co-published by the University of New Orleans Press. A book of his poems, Late Liveries, appeared in 2000, and another manuscript was a finalist in the National Poetry Series competition. Recent translating credits are Vamos a cantar(folksongs – Capital University Press), and Red Earth, poetry by Véronique Tadjo (E. Washington University Press). He has worked on issues of creolity and francophone writing, under various grants and awards, in Africa, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific. Thompson has also translated Léon-Paul Fargue’s Poëmes (2003), and is currently working on Nabile Farès’s Escuchando tu historia.

He is also the editor of Ezra: An Online Journal of Translation. He has also edited two anthologies of francophone literature, Littérature moderne du monde francophone, andNégritude et nouveaux mondes, which are widely used in schools and colleges.