Jack Mapanje is a distinguished Malawian poet, linguist, editor and scholar.  He is the author or editor of ten books, including five volumes of poetry, two of which, The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison and Skipping Without Ropes, were composed while he was imprisoned by the Malawi government from 1987 and 1991.  His most recent volumes of poetry include The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New & Selected Poems (2004), and Beasts of Nalunga (2007).   For his academic achievements, contribution to poetry and human rights, he was awarded the 1988 Rotterdam Poetry International Award and the 2002 African Literature Assocation Fonlon-Nichols Award.  He currently lives in York, England, where he teaches Creative Writing and Literatures of Incarceration in the School of English at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.