A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

John Haynes writes about the process through which African poems were selected for publication in The Heinemann Book of African Poetry in English. In a piece he entitled "The Editor Lied" referring to the criteria adopted by Adewale Maja-Pearce, the editor who selected the poems that appeared in the book, Haynes expressed doubt about the true nature of excellence as the criteria for the selection. The piece was published in The Times Literary Supplement of Friday, Januray18, 1991. He argued that the criteria was anything but excellent to have excluded poets such as Okot p'Bitek and Mazisi Kuneni while giving ample space to a relatively new poet like Frank Chipasula, who he described as "relative novice".