2009 Contests

SEA BREEZE JOURNAL 2009 LITERARY CONTESTS

In our efforts to support Liberian literary talent, we inaugurate our Arts and Letters contests in 2009 with three cash awards of $200.00 (USD) each, in the names of seven original thinkers across generations:

1. the Sea Breeze Journal Albert Porte, Yahney King Sangarey Creative Nonfiction Prize,
2. the Sea Breeze Journal Joseph Jeffrey Walters, Wilton Sengbe Sankawulo, Vamba Sherif Short Fiction Prize, and
3. the Sea Breeze Journal Bai T. Moore, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley Poetry Prize.

The contest is only open to Liberia-based writers. The prizes will be awarded for the best in each category for 2009: Creative Nonfiction, Short Fiction and Poetry. There is no theme. Creativity reigns.

Please submit only unpublished work—work that has not been previously published—by pasting it in the body of an email to seabreezejournal@gmail.com, or you may also attach entries in a Microsoft Word document and transmit.

Entries will be judged for originality, skillful and creative use of Liberian English, and cultural integrity.

In the subject line of your email, please type the year 2009 and the category you are entering in capital letters followed by CONTEST SUBMISSION. For example, if you are submitting poetry, type 2009 POETRY CONTEST SUBMISSION.

The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2009 for the May issue, and September 15, 2009 for the November issue.

We will judge the contest submissions from both the May 2009 and the November 2009 issues and announce the winners in the November 2009 issue.

Word count is flexible within reason and there is a minimum of 3 poems and a maximum of 5 poems for each poetry submission. Please visit our submissions page for detailed submissions guidelines at http://liberiaseabreeze.com/submissions.

The prizes will include a $200.00 (USD) cash award, a Sea Breeze Journal Certificate of Literary Distinction, special recognition in the journal, a public announcement in major Liberian papers, and a formal presentation of the award in Monrovia by our Liberia-based associate editor, Robtel N. Pailey.

Please address your questions to editor@liberiaseabreeze.com

In the Names Of . . .

Bai Tamia Johnson Moore was a  poet, novelist, folklorist and essayist who began his writing career in 1947.  He was born on October 12, 1916 in Dimeh, Dei Chiefdom, Bomi Territory of Vai and Gola parents.  He went to school at the Bendu Industrial Mission Elementary School (1926), Virginia public schools in the United States (1929-34), Virginia Union University (B.S. 1938), Howard University (1939) and Syracuse University (1959). His many publications include: Echoes from the Valley (a collection of poems coauthored with Roland Dempster and T. H. Carey, 1947); Tribes of the Western Province and Dewoin People (1955); Ebony Dust (a collection of poems, 1963); Murder in the Cassava Patch (1968); The Money Doubler (1977); Chips from the African Story Tree (compiled with Jangaba Johnson, 1978) and Voices from Grass Roots (1978). The publication of Murder in the Cassava Patch secured Moore’s reputation as Liberia’s best known writer. Moore also co-produced with S. Jangaba M. Johnson a radio a television series, “Legends and Songs of Liberia,” which ran 260 consecutive Sundays, beginning in 1964.  He held various cultural, educational and tourism posts both for the Liberian government and for UNESCO, and was the founder of Liberia’s National Cultural Center at Kendeja. In 1962, Moore was one of the Vai scholars who took part in a conference at the University of Liberia to standardize the Vai script for modern usage. Bai T. Moore was director of the Cultural Bureau of the Liberian Information Service. Subsequently, he was appointed undersecretary for cultural affairs in the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs. Under the government of President Samuel Doe, Moore was appointed Minister for Cultural Affairs and Tourism, a position he held until his death at the age of seventy-one on January 10, 1988. After a state funeral at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion, attended by cultural troupes from the Dey, Gola, Vai, Kpelle, Gbandi, and Gio tribes, Bai T. Moore was laid to rest in his native Dimeh.

Albert Porte, political critic and pamphleteer, holds the distinction of being one of Liberia’s most famous and best loved political dissidents for his unfaltering dedication to democratic ideals, and his courage in confronting the power structure. The descendent of Barbadian immigrants, he was born in Crozierville on January 16, 1906. He attended the Christ Church Parish Day School; the College of West Africa; Cuttington Collegiate and Divinity School. Porte also took correspondence courses with the Palmer Institute of Authorship, USA. He was a public school teacher, executive secretary of the National Teachers Association (NTA) and editor of the NTA Bulletin. Porte published articles in the Crozierville Observer (1930s), and the local and foreign press. His most famous publications are the leaflets and pamphlets “Explaining Why” (1976), “Thinking about Unthinkable Things—The Democratic Way” (1967), “Liberianization or Gobbling Business?” (1975), “Thoughts on Change” (1977) and “The Day Morning Stood Still” (1979). Imprisoned multiple times, harassed and hounded by the government from the 1920s until his death in 1986, he never relented in using his writing to expose abuses of power and promote social justice.

Yahney King Sangarey was born in Monrovia, Liberia, in 1939. She was christened Jeannie Cecilia King and was the great grand niece of Liberia’s Founding President, Joseph J. Roberts, grand niece of President Daniel E. Howard and granddaughter of President Charles D. B. King. Yahney (her pen name) attended the St. Theresa’s Convent School in Monrovia before moving to the US with her father Ambassador Charles T. O. King and graduating from the Riverdale Preparatory School. She then earned a Bachelors Degree in Journalism from Adelphi College in New York and a Masters Degree in International Relations from American University in Washington D.C. Yahne was involved in national and international media in the genres of television, radio and print from the early ‘60s until the time of her death in 2004. She was known for: “Window on the World”, a Liberian television series that ran in the ‘60s; “English Language Service Program” featured on Radio Ivory Coast International in the ‘70s; news stories as a BBC correspondent and her correspondent work to various United Nations organizations in the ‘80s; contributions to Wiener Zeitung, Vienna’s oldest daily newspaper; and the “University of the Air” talk show on radio station WOLB which she produced up to the time of her death. In addition, she created an African Museum in Marseille, France, during her stay there as Liberian Consul, and she also established the African Museum at the William H. Lemelle Middle School in Baltimore, Maryland, when she moved to the Washington DC./ Baltimore area. Her personal artifacts are on exhibit at this museum.

Wilton Gbakolo Sengbe Sankawulo, Sr. was born in Haindi, Bong County, Fuama Chiefdom, Liberia, in 1937. He graduated from Cuttington College with a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1963; from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary with a Bachelor of Divinity in Theology in 1969; and from the University of Iowa with a Master of Fine Arts in English in 1969. His many published works include an anthology of African Stories, More Modern African Stories and the novels The Rain and the Night (1979), and his recently released Sundown at Dawn, A Liberian Odyssey, Dusty Spark Publishing, 2005; the collections of folklore, The Marriage of Wisdom (1974), Why Nobody Knows When He Will Die (1979), Pot of Gold (1979), and The Challenge of Mister Antelope and Great Tales of Liberia; and the nonfiction texts Tolbert of Liberia, Liberia and African Unity, and What My Country Needs Today. He has served as Professor of English and Literature at the University of Liberia and Cuttington College; Assistant Minister of Information; Special Assistant to the President of Liberia; Chairman of the Second Liberian National Transitional Government; and Interim Head of State of the Republic of Liberia. In 2001, during a mission to Romania on behalf of Cuttington University College, the University of Sibiu conferred on the Liberian professor the degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa, for his literary accomplishments. The University of Sibiu also published his collections of Liberian tales in 2005 entitled Great Tales of Liberia. Dr. Sankawulo credits his wife, Amelia Yata Korpeleh, whose love, support, and encouragement have greatly contributed to his success. Mrs. Sankawulo also hails from Bong County. Their marriage, which spans over 40 years, is blessed with four children: Rose, Roland, Minnie, and Wilton Jr. and a host of grandchildren.

Vamba Sherif was born in 1973 in the forest town of Kolahun, Lofa County, Liberia. As a student at the University of Kuwait, he immersed himself in Arab, European and African literatures. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait interrupted his studies, and after the Gulf War exploded, which he experienced firsthand, Vamba fled to the Netherlands, where he was granted a residence permit on humanitarian grounds, as Liberia was also aflame by war. Vamba Sherif’s first novel, The Land of the Fathers (Het land van de vaders 1999), connects the war situation in Liberia with the past of the nineteenth century, when Liberia was established as the first free African republic. The main character, Edward Richards, a former slave from the United States, tries to find a place in the country of his African roots. Vamba Sherif’s second novel, The Kingdom of Sebah (Het koninkrijk van Sebah 2003), tells the story of how an African family in the Netherlands learn to navigate their immigrant circumstances and new life. Bound to Secrecy (2007), Vamba’s third novel, is concerned with the theme of power and uses the detective medium to explore power at different levels of society. Exploring the interplay of power, both visible and invisible, the story reflects today’s world, with forces pitted against each other, each determined to destroy the other. All three novels are written in Dutch and all earned high critical acclaim. Vamba Sherif lives and writes in the Netherlands.

Joseph Jeffrey Walters a novelist and educator, was born in 1860 to Vai parents near Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. He was among the first pupils of the Episcopal Mission School (Cape Mount Mission) after it was founded by Bishop Charles Clifton Penick (1877-84) in 1878. Walters spent three years at the mission school then in 1883 Penick arranged for Walters to continue his studies in the United States at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. He later entered the preparatory program of Oberlin College. Upon completion of the preparatory program in 1889, he enrolled in the college. He majored in classics and received the B.A. degree in 1893. Walters presumably contracted tuberculosis while at Oberlin. He returned to Robertsport in August, 1893 following graduation and became superintendent of St. John’s Mission School, but in a little more than a year following his return he died from illness on November 12, 1894. While at Oberlin he wrote what became the first novel by an African in the English language, Guanya Pau: A Story of an African Princess (1890). The discovery of this novel in 1985 set back by 20 years the date for the earliest complete, surviving African fictional text in English, therefore it is of significant historical importance.

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley was born in Tugbakeh, Maryland County, southeastern Liberia. She grew up in Monrovia and attended the College of West Africa (CWA) high school in Monrovia. She earned a BA in English, University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia; a Masters of Science degree in English Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; and a Ph.D in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University. An internationally acclaimed poet, she is the author of three award-winning books of poetry, Becoming Ebony (Southern Illinois University Press, 2003), Before the Palm Could Bloom: Poems of Africa (New Issues Press, 1998) and The River Is Rising (Autumn House Press, 2007). She is English Professor at Penn State University, Altoona, Pennsylvania.