Thank you thank you ! launched in Welllington

The stories and visions Yilma Tarefe Tasew has experienced in his journey from being a teacher in Ethiopia, to living in Wellington via a refugee camp in Kenya are the basis for his latest collection of poetry.

The book — Thank you, thank you! published by Steele Roberts — takes its name from a poem of the same name which is a commentary on his experiences as an outsider in New Zealand.
Auckland University professor Michael Hanne says that Yilma’s poems are so simply expressed that anyone can relate to them.
“One of the challenges he must face when he sits down to write is knowing that he has (at least) two audiences. He certainly communicates — I can vouch for it! — with New Zealanders like myself who have led comfortable and safe lives, but care for those who have suffered deeply (and are still suffering) and strive to understand something of their lives.”

In 1991 Ethiopian-born Yilma was exiled to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where he became a community leader and set up the world’s first refugee run news bulletin — KANEBU/ Kakuma News Bulletin.

With the help of visiting Australian students he produced a book of stories and poetry Tilting Changes: an anthology of refugee writing, which featured the work of 28 of the camp’s refugees, including himself.

In 1997 Yilma (pic right) was invited by the UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) to work for the social and community services section in their Kenyan operation base at Nairobi.
Since arriving in Wellington 11 years ago he co-founded Writers International (NZ) group to enable a network for foreign writers and co-founded (and is Editorial Coordinator) of Africana literary journal [LINK].

Yilma is a public speaker on Refugee and Diaspora issues. He has presented papers for government, NGOs, universities, and related national conferences around New Zealand.

As well as Thank you, thank you! Yilma has published two previous collections of poetry Diasporic Ghosts and Agonising Wounds.

Thank you, thank you! was launched by Steele Roberts Publishers last evening,Tuesday 7 December at Wesley Wellington Methodist Church.
The good folk from Unity Books advise me it was an amazing launch event.