Author Archives
A series of Guest Author posts that open our conversations.
For more info, bios and links about each of our AiW Guests, scroll to the foot of their individual posts.
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The Treachery of Words: A Review of ‘Black Tax: Burden or Ubuntu?’
AiW Guest: Thulani Angoma-Mzini In the anthology Black Tax: Burden or Ubuntu (2019), award winning author Niq Mhlongo convenes a parliament of the who’s who of South African literati to dissect the term ‘black tax’. In South Africa the term… Read More ›
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Where were the women? East African writing and the 1962 Makerere Conference.
AiW Guest: Anna Adima. The post-independence period in Kenya and Uganda is renowned for its burgeoning literature production. Uganda was the hub for these literary creativities in the 1960s, largely thanks to the English Department at Makerere University in Kampala,… Read More ›
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Review: A Sojourner’s Tale – Kola Tubosun’s ‘Edwardsville by Heart’
AiW Guest: Tade Ipadeola. “Light tornado alert tonight at Edwardsville. Stay indoors please, when you hear storm alerts!” a text said. ‘Tornado’, p.33 We look out for the traveler’s tale especially. They bear that extra flavour of the road not… Read More ›
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Review: In Search of Life Elsewhere – Ifedigbo Nze Sylva’s ‘My Mind is No Longer Here’
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè. AiW note: Tọ́pẹ́, returning as a Guest Author with this review for AiW, has also given us his Words on the Times, a Q&A series initiated to connect up and share the experiences of life and work during… Read More ›
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Caine Prize 2020: Review of Jowhor Ile’s “Fisherman’s Stew”
AiW Note: AiW’s annual review series of what is now the AKO Caine Prize is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis’s post on our joining the Caine Prize “blogathon” back in… Read More ›
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Review: Zimbabwe’s substitutions, or: what difference would a good or bad past make? Novuyo Rose Tshuma’s ‘House of Stone’ (2018).
AiW Guest: Ranka Primorac. AiW note: After her review of Tshuma’s House of Stone, we were able to catch up with Ranka Primorac for her Words on the Times, an AiW Q&A series running over the last few months, connecting up and… Read More ›
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Caine Prize 2020: Tragedy and Trauma in a Roland Mouret Jacket: A Review of Grace Jones by Irenosen Okojie
AiW Note: AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis started off this series in 2013. Over the five Fridays in July, we are reviewing… Read More ›
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Conflicted writing: NGOs, African Literature and Autonomy. Review of Au-dessous du volcan
AiW Guest: Madeline Bedecarré Note de la rédaction: L’équipe d’Africa in Words est ravie de présenter aujourd’hui notre premier post en deux langues ! Pour la version en français de ce compte-rendu, cliquez ici. Part anthology, part conference proceedings, part… Read More ›
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L’écriture conflictuelle: les ONG, la littérature africaine et l’autonomie. Compte-rendu de Au-dessous du volcan
Auteure invitée: Madeline Bedecarré AiW note: We are thrilled to publish today our first dual-language review! For the English-language version of this post, click here. Mi recueil de nouvelles, mi actes du colloque, avec un parfum de manifeste littéraire, Au-dessous… Read More ›
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“I wish for my poems and music to do away with things I’m sure about. I wish for them to undo me, to unmake me”: Q&A with Petero Kalulé.
AiW Guest: Esther Mirembe. Petero Kalulé is a composer, poet, and multi-instrumentalist. Their music can be bought and listened to via Bandcamp, and their collection of poems Kalimba was published by Guillemot Press in May 2019 – you can buy… Read More ›
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A Box Full of Darkness: The Spaces of Trauma in Jumoke Verissimo’s “A Small Silence”
AiW Guest: James Yeku. AiW note: Anticipating this review, yesterday Jumoke Verissimo, author of A Small Silence (Cassava Republic), offered us her Words on the Times, a Q&A set that offers a space for connection in the experiences of the… Read More ›
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“A Thousand Tentative Tendrils”: Review of The Only Magic We Know: Selected Modjaji Poems 2004 to 2019
AiW Guest: Susanna Sacks. AiW note: This review is the fourth, and last, in a series of posts on the release of two anniversary collections from feminist indy press Modjaji Books – the short story anthology published last year, Fool’s Gold: Selected… Read More ›
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“But Words Grow Up and Reverberate” (Arja Salafranca): Review of “Fool’s Gold: Selected Short Stories” from Modjaji Books
AiW Guest: Susanna Sacks. AiW note: This review is the third in a series of posts on the release of two new anniversary collections from feminist press Modjaji Books – the short story anthology published last year, Fool’s Gold, and… Read More ›
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Q&A: “honoring the writers” – in conversation with Colleen Higgs, Modjaji Press
AiW Guest: Susanna Sacks. Two weeks ago, I caught up with Colleen Higgs, writer and publisher of the independent feminist press Modjaji Books, to discuss Modjaji’s history and her own publishing activism. Higgs founded Modjaji in 2007 to build space… Read More ›
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Love, Loss and Migrant Womanhood: A Review of “Better Never Than Late” by Chika Unigwe
AiW Guest: Zahra Banday. AiW note: We caught up with our Guest Reviewer, Zahra Banday, for some of her Words on the Times – an AiW series of Q&As, connecting artists, writers, thinkers and educators in our new experiences of… Read More ›
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Q&A with Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King: “No one stays static, so language should not be static.”
AiW Guests: Korranda Harris & Birhanu Gessese Maaza Mengiste is an Ethiopian-American writer who has published two novels: Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (2010) and The Shadow King (2019). Mengiste’s fiction paints engaging portraits of life and engages with the themes… Read More ›
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Review: Yolande Mukagasana’s ‘Not My Time to Die’
AiW Guests: Inês Martinho Ferreira and Kiera Fields Kwibuka means ‘to remember’ and describes the annual commemoration of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Last year, as part of Kwibuka 25, Rwandan publisher Huza Press published Yolande Mukagasana’s… Read More ›
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Q&A with writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi: On Writing Place
AiW Guests: Brittany Willis and Catrin Williams Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a Ugandan writer currently living in Manchester. Her first novel, Kintu, won the Kwani 2013 Manuscript Project and was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize in 2014. Her most recent… Read More ›
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Review: What Diaspora Means Now – Nuruddin Farah’s ‘North of Dawn’
AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi. AiW note: We caught up with novelist, poet, and professor of World Literature – our guest author and reviewer here, Rashi Rohatgi – to ask for some of her Words on the times – an AiW… Read More ›
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Q&A with Angela Wachuka – Literary producer and co-founder of Book Bunk
AiW Guests: Jess Irving and Jessica Smith Angela Wachuka is one of Kenya’s leading literary producers. In 2018, with Wanjiru Koinange, she founded Book Bunk. From 2008 to 2017, Wachuka was Executive Director of Kwani Trust, where she published Africa’s… Read More ›
