Follow-up on "The Most Gorgeous Nigerian Women"--my response published in Leadership

So this past Sunday, October 19, I bought a Sunday Leadership, and was having a jolly time catching up on the news when I was given a bit of a jolt. There on page 53 was my response to "The Most Gorgeous Nigerian Women" that I posted on this blog on October 5.

Now I am pleased and flattered that my blog is being followed, and I'm happy to see my words in "print," but this is the second time in the past few months that I'm finding something I've written published elsewhere without having any idea it was reprinted. At least this time, "Talatu-Carmen" was actually given credit rather than being ripped off. Let me repeat what I have written in my blogger profile: "Please feel free to comment, but please do not use, quote, or re-post anything from these blogs without first requesting my permission."

So, don Allah, don Annabi, if there are any editors or journalists reading this who want to use something from my blog, that's fine. Just LET ME KNOW BEFORE you print it. This gives me a chance to edit it further and give you my real name, rather than my blog-name Talatu-Carmen. It also lets me keep track of my "publications," which is kind of important...

Thank you....

Mourning Modal Minority

I came back from my vacation (and blog break) yesterday to find that one of my favourite blogs, Modal Minority, by Teju Cole, has vanished, leaving me sad and bereft of an almost daily reading ritual. I google Teju Cole and find some of his poems left behind in the google cache, the floating residue of a ghost ship. I was going to post part of his poem "This," which expressed, in part, my sense of loss but decided to respect his desire to leave.

Teju, you are missed!

New Blog and Translation Work

Last month I started a new blog to hold some of my longer, less bite-sized posts. I will be periodically posting longer pieces of text that I am working on: translation projects, short stories, film and book reviews, etc. I'd appreciate good critical feedback. I posted my first "real" contribution to the blog tonight--the first (still very rough) chapter of a translation from Hausa to English that I am working on: Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino's novel Kaico!

Whenever I update the "literary" blog, I'll post a link here. Comments and suggestions very welcome.

T-C