Joyce Ashuntantang is a Cameroonian poet and creative writer. She has contributed to nine international anthologies of poetry and currently a tenured Professor of English at the

University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. The university attracts students from 48 states and 43 countries. The university and it ...

West Hartford, Connecticut West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census. The town's popular downtown area is colloquially known as "West Hartford Center," or simply "The C ...

Biography

Ashuntantang started writing publications when she was in secondary school but never thought of writing as a career because in her country of Cameroon, where she grew up, writing was not presented as a career. She received a B.A in English with a minor in Theater Arts from the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon with a Master's in Library and Information Science from the

University of Aberystwyth , mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all , established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'') , former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth , type = Public , endowment = ...

, UK, a Masters in English from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

, and a Ph.D. in English/African Literature from the

Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

. She has published more than four books of poetry and contributed to 13 volumes of international poetry anthologies as well as one short story anthology which include Landscaping Postcoloniality: The Dissemination of Cameroon Anglophone Literature (2009) and three poetry collections, Their Champagne Party will End: Poems in Honor of Bate Besong, co-edited (2008), A Basket of Flaming Ashes (2010) and Beautiful Fire (2018). Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Turkish, Bangla, Arabic and Romanian.

Awards

Her Awards include Spirit of Detroit Award for Leadership (1987), Ministry of Culture, Cameroon, Award for Outstanding Performance in Theater (1989, 1994), Belle K. Ribicoff Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship (2012), Kathrak-Bangladesh Literary Award, and the African Literature Association (ALA) Book of the Year Award - Creative Writing 2020 for her poetry collection Beautiful Fire (2018).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashuntantang, Joyce Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Cameroonian writers Cameroonian women writers University of Hartford faculty Alumni of Aberystwyth University Hunter College alumni CUNY Graduate Center alumni