Peter Thompson

Peter is Professor of Modern Languages and Literature at Roger Williams University.  He edits Ezra: An Online Journal of Translation, founded in 2007.

Besides Angle of Incidence/Shades (Diálogos, 2012), his books include Daybreak and New Words, (song lyrics, 1996, 1998). More recently he has translated Léon-Paul Fargue’s Poèmes (2003), Véronique Tadjo’s first book of poetry, Red Earth, (2006), along with Nabile Farès’s Escuchando tu historia (2008) Un Passager de l’Occident (2010), L’Exil et le désarroi (2012) and Nassira Azzouz’s The Gates of The Sun (2010).His translation of Tchicaya u Tam’si’s The Belly—the first full-length translation of Tchicaya’s poetry—appears in 2014.

He has edited two anthologies of francophone literature, and translated the Spanish folksong anthology Vamos a cantar, (Capital University Press).

The French anthologies center on francophone literature, outside of France. They are Littérature moderne du monde francophone (McGraw-Hill Higher Education), and Négritude et nouveaux mondes (Wayside Publishing).

Related research is his article “Negritude and a New Africa: An Update,” anthologized in Quayson and Olaniyan’s book African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory.

A Passenger from the West, which begins with the author’s (Nabile Farès’s) friendship with James Baldwin, is reviewed at Foreword, and also by Pierre Joris.

“The English language is better for its encounter with theses like this and with Farès’s sensibility. Not easily claimed as one thing or another, A Passenger From The West belongs in many aisles of a bookstore. One should not miss it.” –Janelle Adsit

Peter’s page at PEN American Center.

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