Cover of “Fantasies – Love-making poems” by Fabian Adekunle Badejo.
PHILIPSBURG--Fantasies – Love-making poems by St. Maarten author Fabian Adekunle Badejo is now a recommended summer reading book in the United States, said Jacqueline Sample of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).
Small Press Distributors (SPD) picked the book of adult love poems in June for its newest “SPD Recommends” list of 20 titles at SPDbooks.org. SPD, based in California, is a major distributor for independent publishers in the US.
The newest book by Badejo has been reviewed as “A grown-up literary confection that does what verse written by men seems to seldom do these days,” by author/journalist Sharon Leach of the Jamaica Observer newspaper.
The poems in Fantasies “celebrate male strength by exploring in all its big-hearted glory … its vulnerability, honesty … and, yes, avid beauty,” said Leach.
At home, Fantasies has also been exciting the imagination. The book had to be re-stocked at Van Dorp bookstore less than two weeks after its launch before an audience of more than 300 people at St. Martin Book Fair’s opening ceremony on June 1, said Sample. She said, “Some people are still surprised that Mr. Badejo, a mostly serious-topic author, would write erotic poems with names like ‘Strip,’ ‘The First Kiss,’ ‘Beauty & the Priest,’ ‘Lick Me,’ ‘Mating Sounds,’ ‘Girl Talk,’ and ‘Bragging Rights.’”
Guadeloupean novelist Doris Dumabin was probably more to the point when she said that in Fantasies “our excitement climbs to its paroxysm.”
Perhaps with an inkling that the collection would travel soon after being published, Aruban poet Rosabelle Illes said Fantasies is “A sensual odyssey. Badejo communicates with the intensity only found in infatuation and a truth only discovered through relentless devotion.”
Fantasies is available at Van Dorp’s and Arnia’s bookstores, and at SPD.
