September 24, 2012 (ALEXANDRIA, VA) – South African university libraries are expanding their academic resources in the area of African women’s writing with the addition of literary anthologies from Alexander Street Press.

Universities including University of Western Cape, North West University, Rhodes University, and the University of Fort Hare have all expanded their academic offering to include volumes from the Women Writing Africa project.

This four-volume series is available at no charge to academic libraries throughout the African continent from Alexander Street Press. The series was developed by The Feminist Press and aims to restore African women’s voices to the public sphere. Each region-specific volume collects oral and written narratives as well as a variety of historical and literary texts to increase the visibility of the oral and written literary expression of African women.

The series’ four distinct volumes include:

• Volume 1: The Southern Region, which documents and maps the extraordinary and diverse landscape of African women's oral and written literatures across the south beginning in the early 1800s.
• Volume 2: West Africa and the Sahel, which draws upon more than a decade of research and covers the territory where many African Americans find their roots.
• Volume 3: The Eastern Region, which traces the history of Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia in more than one hundred texts that date back to 1711.
• Volume 4: The Northern Region, which includes more than one hundred texts from Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia and features works from 3000 BCE to the present, covering subjects from Egyptian queen’s marriage proposal to contemporary women promoting new marriage and family laws.

These volumes are part of a larger collection, Black Women Writers, a global resource available through subscription or perpetual access. Academic institutions can sign up for access by visiting http://www.alexanderstreet.com/wwav2012.  More information about Women Writing Africa and Black Women Writers is available online.

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About Alexander Street Press
Alexander Street Press is an electronic publisher of award-winning online collections and video for scholarly research, teaching, and learning. Our products are available to libraries and educational institutions worldwide via annual subscription or one-time purchase. Learn more at http://www.alexanderstreet.com.

Contact for Media Inquiries/Reviewer Access:

Abby Horowitz, Marketing Writer
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ahorowitz [at] alexanderstreet [dot] com