Joanna Polly Woods

About me

Joanna Woods is currently working on contemporary southern African speculative fiction. Her doctoral research explores the rhetorical function of the speculative mode, focusing on short Anglophone texts written by authors from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa and published over the past decade.

Joanna was a lecturer in the English Department at Chancellor College, University of Malawi before starting her PhD. While in Malawi, she was involved in working within the space between theory and praxis; academic space and public space.

Now, and alongside her research, Joanna is Communications Editor for Africa in Words  - a blog that focuses on cultural production and Africa. She also coordinates the Collaborative Research Group (CRG) African Literatures - a forum for interdisciplinary exchange and engagement between scholars working in African literary studies and African Studies.

Research keywords

Southern Africa, African literature, speculative fiction, popular fiction, rhetoric, narratology, contemporary literature

Publications

Interview: “In Focus: Andrew Dakalira”, Two Thirds North. Edited by Paul Schreiber, Adnan Mahmutović, and Maria Freij. Stockholm University. 2021.

“On Contemporary Speculative Short Fiction in Southern Africa”, Scrutiny2: Issues in English Studies in Southern Africa, Sept. 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18125441.2020.1813193

“The Textual History of Dede Kamkondo’s The Flying Saucer”, Journal of Humanities, AJOL, 28 (1), 2020.

“Writing the Possible and the Future: Style in Malawian Speculative Fiction”, Co-authored with R. J. Likaku. Journal of Humanities, AJOL, 25 (2), 2017.

From Home and Exile: A Negotiation of Ideas about Home in Malawian Poetry. Langaa, RPCIG. 2015.

Book chapters

“Mohale Mashigo’s Intruders: The Cultivation of ‘A Place In-Between’”, in Mohale Mashigo. ‘Stories for Healing’: Mashigo’s Creative Philosophy. Edited by Monica Latham, Clair McKeown and Marilyne Brun. Presses Universitaires de Nancy – Éditions Universitaires de Lorraine. 2021.

“Identity and Experience in Malawi: Challenges and Observations” in Women Researching in Africa. Edited by R. Jackson & M. Kelly. Palgrave Macmillan. 2019.

Reviews

“Death and Compassion: The Elephant in Southern African Literature by Dan Wylie: Review by Joanna Woods”, Nordic Journal of African Studies, 29 (2), 2020.