For Nelson Mandela

Twenty-four writers from Africa, Europe and the Americas here contribute essays, poetry and fiction in tribute to South Africa's Nelson Mandela. As Susan Sontag points out, Mandela, in prison for 23 years, represents the majority of people in South Africa, is tacit head of its outlawed, exiled political party and de facto head of state of a democratic country that does not yet exist. The materials range from a six-line poem by Samuel Beckett and a parable by William Burroughs to a novella by Olympe Bhely-Quenum of Benin and extracts from novels by Nadine Gordimer and Tunisian-born Mustapha Tlili. There are also verses by John Ashbery, Allen Ginsberg and Ntozake Shange and prose pieces by Jorge Amado, Juan Goytisolo, John Irving and Joyce Carol Oates. An impressive salute to a worldwide symbol of freedom. (October 11)