Luanda - Angolan writer, João Melo, presented Thursday in Washington, United States of America, his book entitled “Angola is wherever I plant my field”, his first work in English, launched earlier this year.
The book is the translation into English of a collection of short stories chosen from the titles “O serial killer e outros contos risíveis ou talvez não”, published by Caminho in 2004 and “O dia em que o Pato Donald comeu a Margarida pela primeira vez” published in 2006 by the same publishing company.
The work was presented at an event that took place at the Mexican Cultural Institute, in the presence of dozens of readers.
Angola is wherever I plant my field, which is also the title of the last short story in the selection, is part of the inaugural catalogue of the Iskanchi Press publishing house, set up in 2020 in the United States, with the exclusive purpose of publishing African authors, especially of literature that is little known in US.
Nigerian editor and writer Kenechi Uzor is the founder of the publishing house, which is based in the state of Utah, USA.
Uzor said that the first book translated into English by João Melo corresponds exactly to the kind of works that Iskanchi Press intends to publish in the US and Canadian markets, as they show a current and modern Africa, with all its complexities, far from the folkloristic vision of most western readers.
João Melo is considered a master of humour and irony, as well as one of the creators of the African post-modernism era.
The writer is known for his constant structural and linguistic experiments in order to create surprising narratives.
