Syl Cheney-Coker was born in 1945 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. A poet and novelist, Cheney was awarded the 1991 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region) for his novel titled The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar (1990). He is the author of critically acclaimed poetry collections such as Concerto for an Exile _(1973), _The Blood in the Desert’s Eyes (1990), The Graveyard Also Has Teeth (1974; revised edition, 1979), Stone Child and Other Poems (2008), and The Road to Jamaica: Elegy for the Afro (2015). He attended the University of Oregon (1967-1970), the University of California–Los Angeles (1970), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1971-72). He received the Fonlon-Nichols Award from the African Literature Association and a fellowship from the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
1945-01-01
Creole
Sierra Leone
Creole, English
University of Oregon, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Concerto For An Exile (African Writers Series 126. London: Heinemann, 1973);
The Blood in the Desert’s Eyes: Poems (African Writers Series; Heinemann African Poets. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann,1990),
The Graveyard Also Has Teeth ( New Beacon Press; revised edition, African Writers Series 221, 1974 and London: Heinemann, 1980),
The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar ( African Writers Series. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books, 1990)
Stone Child and other poems (HEBN Publishers, Nigeria, 2008)
The Road to Jamaica: Elegy for the Afro (Karantha Publishing House, Sierra Leonean Writers Series (SLWS), Sierra Leone, 2015).
Brennan, Carol. "Cheney-Coker, Syl." Encyclopedia, www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/cheney-coker-syl-1945. Accessed 16 March 2022.
"Syl Cheney-Coker." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/syl-cheney-coker. Accessed 16 March 2022.
"Syl Cheney-Coker." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syl_Cheney-Coker. Accessed 16 March 2022.
Lilleleht, Mark. "Reading Syl Cheney-Coker: A Selected Annotated Bibliography." Journal of the African Literature Association, vol. 1, no. 1, 2016, pp. 36–39. Accessed 16 March 2022.
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