Biography
Reesom Haile was born 1946 in Eritrea. His first poetry collection, Waza ms qumneger ntnsae hager (Tragicomedies for Resurrecting a Nation), was the recipient of the 1998 Raimok Prize, Eritrea’s highest literary award. He was in exile for twenty years during Eritrea’s war for independence from Ethiopia and returned to Eritrea in 1994. His writings examine Africa’s colonial past, civic responsibility and the struggle for national independence. A former Poet Laureate of Eritrea, he is widely recognized for his use of Tigrinya, one of Eritrea's main languages and his championing of the use of African vernaculars in creative expression rather than colonial languages. Haile earned his doctorate in Media Ecology from New York University. He died in 2003.
Poetry Collections
Waza Ms Gumneger Ntnsae Hager (Asmara : Yohanna, 1997); We Have Our Voice (Lawrenceville, NJ : Red Sea Press, 2000); We Invented the Wheel (Trenton, NJ : Red Sea Press, 2002)
Sources
“Re-Introducing Reesom Haile.” Brittle Paper, 26 Nov. 2021, https://brittlepaper.com/2021/12/re-introducing-reesom-haile/. Accessed 12 May 2022. Abay, Mehreteab, and Emnetu Tesfay. “A Short Biographical Sketch Of Dr. Reesom Haile.” Dr.Reesom Haile, 2014, http://emnetu.com/Biographies/Dr.%20Reesom%20Haile/Dr.%20Reesom%20Haile.html. Accessed 12 May 2022. “‘Reesom Haile's Poetry’ by Charles Cantalupo.” Titanic Operas, http://archive.emilydickinson.org/titanic/material/cantalupohaile.html. Accessed 12 May 2022. “Reesom Haile.” Modern Poetry in Translation, https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poet/reesom-haile/. Accessed 12 May 2022. Cantalupo, Charles. War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry. Mkuki Na Nyota Publ., 2009.
