K P Kojo

Raised in Cape Coast and Accra, in Ghana, K.P. Kojo grew up hearing stories from his parents, his blind grandmother, orange-sellers, teachers and a rag-bag of friends with whom he ran wild. Many years later, in London, he was asked to visit a library and tell stories and found himself kneeling in front of twenty six-year-olds retelling an Ananse story. That was in 2001. Since then he has worked in hundreds of schools in the UK, Zimbabwe, Switzerland, US, and at home in Ghana using moral-based storytelling to teach children how to make up their own stories and he has published extensively for adults as Nii Ayikwei Parkes, which is his real name. A 2007 recipient of Ghana's national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy, he is a former International Writing Fellow at the University of Southampton and Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Aberystwyth. Nii Ayikwei is also Senior Editor at flipped eye publishing. His first book for children, The Parade (Frances Lincoln), witty retellings of Ananse stories, was selected for the 2012 USBBY’s Outstanding International Books list in the United States. His second and latest is Tales from Africa (Penguin), a new addition to the Puffin Classics series, with tales from the forests of Madagascar to the deserts of Libya. K.P. Kojo spends his time in Ghana and the United Kingdom.