African Writers Series is based upon the collection begun by the Heinemann African Writers Series.  Founded in 1962 with the aim of publishing writing by black African writers for an African readership, the Heinemann series grew as African nations won independence and leading writers began to forge distinctive national literatures throughout the continent. The series includes published work by major authors from this period as well as classic earlier texts and new writing, creating a unique literature resource for African cultural history.

“We’re very proud to continue and expand upon the legacy built by the Heinemann African Writers Series,” said Mary Sauer-Games, ProQuest’s vice-president of publishing for Chadwyck-Healey.  “African Writers Series revives these works through digital access for a new generation of students and researchers.

Because of its unique contribution to African cultural scholarship, African Writers Series will be provided free of charge or at reduced prices to higher education institutions throughout Africa.  The product offers digital access to a core collection of definitive works -- two thirds of which has been out-of-print and unavailable to researchers until now.  Biographies have been specially commissioned for each author in the series.  Among the key authors and works are:

• Mongo Beti (Missionto Kala, The Poor Christ of Bomba)
• Ama Ata Aidoo (The Girl Who Can)
• Steve Biko (I Write What I Like)
• Dennis Brutus (Letters to Martha, A Simple Lust)
• Buchi Emecheta (The Joys of Motherhood, Bride Price)
• W.P.B. Botha (A Duty of Memory, Wantok)

Most of the works from this collection are still in copyright.  Each text is double re-keyed to insure more than 99.97% accuracy.   Original pagination is preserved, and the page layout of poems is reproduced as accurately as possible. Scanned images have also been used as a supplement to the keyed text for illustrations, figures and unusual page layouts. 

African Writers Series’ sophisticated search capabilities allow text analyses of key African novels together with selected poems, plays, and nonfiction, supporting both teaching and research. All authors in the collection are indexed by gender, nationality and dates of birth/death. All texts are indexed by details of first publication (date, place, publisher and language) and details of first publication in the Heinemann African Writers Series .

African Writers Series is one of series of recent products from Chadwyck-Healey that provide digital access to great literature collections.  Others include Twentieth Century Drama, American Drama, Canadian Poetry, and Early American Fiction.  All are available as standalone databases or fully integrated with Literature Online™. As an integrated collection with Literature Online, each product allows faculty and researchers to cross-search with 350,000 works from Literature Online and to access relevant reference works, literary criticism, related texts and current works from literary journals.

For More Information about African Writers Series or any ProQuest product, visit on the Web at www.proquest.com or call 800-521-0600.

ProQuest Information and Learning is a world leader in collecting, organizing, and publishing information worldwide for researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. Known widely for its strength in business and economics, general reference, humanities, social sciences, and STM content, the company develops premium databases comprising periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, out-of-print books, and other scholarly information from more than 8,500 publishers worldwide.  Users access the information through the ProQuest^®  Web-based online information system, Chadwyck-Healey^TM electronic and microform resources, UMI^® microform and print reference products, eLibrary^®, SIRS^® and Voyager Expanded Learning educational resources, and XanEdu^® online faculty and student resources. For more information about ProQuest Information and Learning, visit www.il.proquest.com.

ProQuest Information and Learning is a business unit of ProQuest Company (www.proquestcompany.com), which was recently named one of the top 100 fastest growing technology companies in the United States by Business 2.0 and one of the 200 best small companies by Forbes Magazine.