Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora

One day, the trickster will tire of being a cautionary tale. He will drop his disguises and wear his face so  well that villagers see it and quail. 

Woe unto those who rewrote the lore to declare conformity king. Cleverness is not punished by its  offspring, and the trickster tires of being called a sin. 

The son of God will awaken irate. The earth will crack in the shape of a web. The butt of the joke will  metamorphose: a stinger poised to unfold.

Meet the Poet

Ivana Akotowaa Ofori is a Ghanaian storyteller. Known also by the alias of “The Spider Kid,” she is a weaver of words in many forms, including fiction, non-fiction and spoken-word poetry. An alumna of the inaugural JIAS Creative Writers’ Workshop, Akotowaa has been nominated for various awards, including the 2021 Miles Morland Writing Fellowship and the 2020 Nommo Awards. Her work has appeared in anthologies such as Writivism’s And Morning Will Come (2021), Tor.com’s Africa Risen (2022), and Clinamen Editions’ Daring Shifts (2023). Her work also appears in online magazines such as Jalada Africa and AFREADA. Her debut novella, The Year of Return, will be published in 2024 by Android Press. She lives in Accra, Ghana.