Logan February
Logan February was born in 1999 in Anambra, Nigeria. In addition to writing poetry, essays, and song lyrics, Logan February is an LGBTQI+ activist. February studied psychology at the University of Ibadan and creative writing at Purdue University.
February’s texts challenge common thought patterns: West African traditions meet European discourses, postcolonial experience and queer contemporary theories permeate each other, the boundaries between the physical and the spiritual blur. February’s poems deal with the complexity of identities, which they describe using terms and concepts from ancient Yorùbá knowledge and psychoanalysis. February has published three chapbooks to date: »How to Cook a Ghost« (2017), »Painted Blue with Saltwater« (2018), and »Garlands« (2019), as well as the poetry collection »In the Nude« (2019). A selection of the poems was first published in German in 2024 under the title »Mental Voodoo« in a translation by the poet Christian Filips. »Mental Voodoo« is »a bold and stubborn song of praise to black, queer bodies. Biting and lively. Multi-layered and conceptual poetry, with confessional undertones and fatalistic intentions«, says Nigerian poet Dami Ajayi.
»In the Nude« was nominated for the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets. In addition to publications in various magazines such as »Berlin Quarterly«, »The Guardian«, »Life«, and »Africa In Dialogue«, February’s texts have also been translated into Spanish, Italian, and Dutch. In 2020, February was awarded the Future Awards Africa Prize for Literature and in November of the same year, they took part in the digital residency Un Masking Difference as a fellow of the Literary Colloquium Berlin.
Logan February lives in Berlin in 2024 as a scholarship holder of the DAAD Artists-in-Residence Program.
Status: April 2024
Bibliografie
How to Cook a Ghost
Glass Poetry Press
Toledo, 2017
Painted Blue with Saltwater
Indolent Books
New York, 2018
Garlands
Ghost City Press
New York, 2019
In the Nude
Ouida Poetry
Lagos, 2019
Mental Voodoo
Engeler Verlage/Poesie Dekolonie
Schupfart, 2024
(Ü: Christian Filips und Peter Dietze)