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 Truth outside Context: Jumoke Verissimo reviews Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday
This review of Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday is the first in a series of reviews of books published by Cassava Republic Press that we’ll be running over coming weeks to celebrate the launch of Cassava Republic in the UK. AiW… Read More ›
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Q&A with Ernest Emenyonu on African Children’s Literature
At the recent African Literature Association conference in Atlanta, Africa in Words had the opportunity to speak with Ernest N. Emenyonu, Professor and Chair of the Africana Studies department at the University of Michigan-Flint, about African Literature Today’s latest issue, “Children’s Literature… Read More ›
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Q&A: Justice is merely a feeling – Peter Kagayi
AiW Author: Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire Peter Kagayi is a Ugandan poet and lawyer. Recently announced as Anglophone coordinator at Writivism, he has taught Literature in various secondary schools in Uganda and was President of the Lantern Meet of Poets until recently. He curates… Read More ›
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Q&A: Law is a form of literature – Busingye Kabumba
AiW Author: Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire Dr. Busingye Kabumba teaches Human Rights and International Law at Makerere and other universities. Educated at the University of Pretoria, Harvard, Oxford and Makerere, Busingye is also a partner at Development Law Associates, a legal consulting… Read More ›
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Telling the African Story: A Review of Janet Kofi-Tsekpo’s Yellow Iris
AiW Guest: Jovia Salifu This month, Jovia Salifu continues our deep dive into Eight New Generation African Poets. As a lover of poetry, it is always a wonderful feeling to come across beautiful poetry. It is even more exciting when… Read More ›
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Q& A: “It’s just not enough to be a lawyer” – Sophie Alal on law and literature
AiW Author: Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire Sophie Alal founded Deyu African, a non-profit that publishes folk tales, literary work, commentary and journalism about arts and culture. She is an accomplished writer of short stories, poetry, and flash fiction. Her work has… Read More ›
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Living in and through Zambia: Review of Tanvi Bush’s ‘Witch Girl’ (Modjaji Books)
AiW Guest: Gráinne O’Connell Witch Girl is a 2015 novel that reads like a play. Indeed, I hope to see more titles by this author, including plays. The title of the book, Witch Girl, reflects in part that the protagonist… Read More ›
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Review: Moses Tladi UNEARTHED, South African National Gallery, 24 September 2015 – 31 March 2016
AiW Guest: Anthea Gordon To get to the South African National Art Gallery (SANG) you walk through the Company Gardens in Cape Town’s city centre. After passing baobab trees, a rose garden, and fountains in the middle of green lawns,… Read More ›
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Future Visions: Five Breakout Talents in African Film Today
AiW Guest: Sarah Jilani Returning to screens across London this past November, the Royal African Society’s annual Film Africa festival celebrated and promoted filmmaking from various countries across the continent. In a colourful week of reunions, fresh faces and thought-provoking… Read More ›
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Memory and the Cartography of Dismembered Parts: A Review of Peter Akinlabi’s A Pagan Place
AiW Guest: Iquo DianaAbasi Eke. This month, AiW Guest, poet Iquo DianaAbasi Eke, continues our deep dive in The Eight New Generation African Poets with her review of Peter Akinlabi’s A Pagan Place. In this collection, Akinlabi comes across as an… Read More ›
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Home is now; home is never, now you see it, now you don’t: A Review of ‘From Home and Exile’ by Joanna Woods
AiW Guest Shadreck Chikoti A few months ago we laid to rest Professor Steve Chimombo, one of the leading writers from Malawi, a man of exceptional talent, unwavering in his passion for the arts. His legendary life has been chronicled… Read More ›
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Souffles turns 50: Remembering the “Breath” of Moroccan Francophone Literature
AiW Guest: Khalid Lyamlahy Khalid Lyamlahy recalls the role played by Moroccan review Souffles in initiating a new cultural movement in 1960s Morocco. This is part of our joint series with the LSE Africa blog: Reflections on African Literature taking place… Read More ›
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Review: Kholofelo Maenetsha’s ‘To the Black Women We All Knew’
AiW Guest: Helen Cousins. What a bittersweet eulogy this is to the suffering of Black women at the hands (and often the fists) of Black men; not always surviving, as indicated by the past tense of the title. The novel… Read More ›
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Of Lagos, startups, cigarettes and prostitutes: a Nigerian writer unveils his literary inspiration
AiW Guest: Leye Adenle Leye Adenle discusses how an encounter with a sex worker led to him giving her the central role in his first feature-length novel. This is part of our joint series with the LSE Africa blog: Reflections on… Read More ›
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I Am Not Done with African Immigrant Literature
AiW Guest Shadreck Chikoti I get afraid, very afraid, when somebody, anybody, prescribes to me which books to read and not to read. When somebody gives me a template of what African literature ought to look like. And boy! You… Read More ›
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Reading Lessons: The Chronic (“New Cartographies,” March 2015)
AiW Guest: Ed Charlton. When it comes to alliances and accords, Africa is full of them. Whether it is bilateral extradition treaties, regional trade agreements, or the pan-continental constitution of the African Union, there are everywhere traces of the extranational… Read More ›
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Q&A: Juwairiyya Asmal-Lee interviews Ankara Press author Amina Thula
AiW Guest: Juwairiyya Asmal-Lee Amina Thula is the author of two Ankara Press novels: The Elevator Kiss, published in December 2014, and the forthcoming Love Next Door, which will be released on 14 February 2016. She talks here about her writing,… Read More ›
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Review: Bearing Heavy Things by Liyou Libsekal
This month, Guest Reviewer Rehaana Manek continues our deep dive into the Eight New Generation African Poets. Libsekal writes as though she has witnessed. Witnessed violence, witnessed empathy, witnessed intimacy and has witnessed the bearing of heavy things. Chris Abani,… Read More ›
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Q&A with ‘Imagine Africa 500’ authors Muthi Nhlema and Tiseke Chilima
AiW Guest Joanna Woods With the publication of Pan African Publisher’s new speculative fiction anthology, Imagine Africa 500, two featured writers from Malawi, Muthi Nhlema and Tiseke Chilima, join me for a short interview on their stories. At Kwaharaba Book… Read More ›
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Review: ‘Do Not Go Gentle’
AiW Guest: Danielle Faye Tran. “It is my wish […] that people should know I died of AIDS” (27) -from a letter written by character Zola to be read aloud at her vigil The spread of HIV creates a tense… Read More ›
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