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.

• Review: Oyeyemi’s ‘Gingerbread’ has “no nostalgia baked in”

  By Africa in Words Guest on 8 April , 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Caitlin Bridget Shewell-Cooper. My friends have long heard my complaints that Helen Oyeyemi’s UK covers have never done the books justice. Too twee, too generic, chill out, Caitlin. The Riverhead Books US edition of Gingerbread, featuring a dark… Read More ›

• Review: New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano Part 3, Politics)

  By Africa in Words Guest on 1 April , 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi AiW note: This is the fourth in a series of poetry reviews on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set from AiW Guest Rashi Rohatgi. You can find the introduction to this series here, and reviews… Read More ›

• Call for Papers: MLA 2020, African Literature to 1990 (deadline Mar. 15)

  By Africa in Words Guest on 6 March , 2019 • ( 1 )

  

  The Modern Language Association Forum for African Literature to 1990 is seeking papers for the following panels proposed for MLA 2020 (9-12 January) in Seattle, Washington: African Literature and the Cold War How does the global Cold War transform readings… Read More ›

• Review: New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano Part 2, Heartache)

  By Africa in Words Guest on 4 March , 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi AiW note: This is the third in a series of poetry reviews on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set from AiW Guest Rashi Rohatgi. You can find the previous posts here and here; look for… Read More ›

• Isaac Fadoyebo: soldier and storyteller between Nigeria and Burma

  By Africa in Words Guest on 28 February , 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Oliver Coates Isaac Fadoyebo’s memoir A Stroke of Unbelievable Luck offers a unique record of one African soldier’s war service in India and Burma. Forced to hide behind enemy lines in the Burmese rainforest for nine months, Fadoyebo’s… Read More ›

• ‘Archive, snapshot, treasure trove’: Review of ‘Voices of Ghana’

  By Africa in Words Guest on 11 February , 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Madhu Krishnan  It’s difficult to know where to start with a text like Voices of Ghana: Literary Contributions to the Ghana Broadcasting System 1955-57. Edited by Victoria Ellen Smith, the second edition of this collection of plays, prose… Read More ›

• Talking #Africadia and Afropolitanism: An Interview with Artist Siwa Mgoboza

  By Africa in Words Guest on 7 February , 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Stacey Kennedy Siwa Mgboza is an emerging artistic talent from South Africa working primarily with a South African textile called isiShweshwe. He is represented by Loft Art Gallery in Casablanca, Morocco, Matter Gallery in Toronto, Canada, BoxArt Gallery… Read More ›

• Review: New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano Part 1, Diaspora)

  By Africa in Words Guest on 4 February , 2019 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi. AiW note: This is the second in a series of poetry reviews on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set from AiW Guest Rashi Rohatgi. You can find the introductory post here; look for the follow-up reviews of the… Read More ›

• Literary Networks and Collaborations: A Nod towards Knowledge Decolonisation

  By Africa in Words Guest on 11 January , 2019 • ( 1 )

  

  AiW Guest: Doseline Kiguru. AiW note: This is part of a series of posts for Africa in Words exploring the networked series of research, events, and discussions, ‘Small Magazines, Literary Networks and Self-Fashioning in Africa and its Diasporas’. Here our… Read More ›

• “An excoriating critique”: Review of Leye Adenle’s ‘When Trouble Sleeps’

  By Africa in Words Guest on 20 December , 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Sam Naidu.  Leye Adenle’s noir thriller, When Trouble Sleeps, is an excoriating critique of contemporary Nigerian society. From the prologue, with its melodramatic plane crash to the surprisingly satisfying conclusion, this novel is relentless in its examination of… Read More ›

• Gaël Faye in Conversation: A Review

  By Africa in Words Guest on 17 December , 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Akua Banful.  I walked into the large room on the second floor of Albertine, the French consulate affiliated bookstore in New York, and immediately felt the energy and anticipation of the crowd. The old, the young, the francophone… Read More ›

• RadioBook Rwanda: Bringing Together Text, Sound & Audiences

  By Africa in Words Guest on 13 December , 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  AiW Guest Lucky Grace Isingizwe To me, RadioBook Rwanda reads and sounds like a documentation of the Rwandan way of living. When I engage with each of the stories, I can see them expanding from the author’s eyes and making… Read More ›

• Review: New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Tano)

  By Africa in Words Guest on 30 November , 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi. AiW note: This is the introduction to a series of poetry reviews on the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set from AiW Guest Rashi Rohatgi. Look for the follow-up reviews of the volumes in this box… Read More ›

• “Corridors of storytelling” in contemporary African culture: Small Magazines at Africa Writes – Sunday July 1st, 2018

  By Africa in Words Guest on 23 November , 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Sumayya Lee. AiW note: This is the fifth in a series of posts for Africa in Words exploring the networked series of research, events, and discussions, ‘Small Magazines, Literary Networks and Self-Fashioning in Africa and its Diasporas’. Here… Read More ›

• An African Literary Calendar: 15 Books on Our Radar Right Now

  By Africa in Words Guest on 19 November , 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  AiW Guest: Sana Goyal. Earlier this year saw the publication of first novels by Leila Slimani (Lullaby) and Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (House of Stone), Michael Donkor (Hold) and Peter Kimani (Dance of the Jakaranda). These books sat on bookshelves alongside… Read More ›

• Q&A: Temitayo Olofinlua on Book Distribution and Literary Activism

  By Africa in Words Guest on 11 November , 2018 • ( 5 )

  

  AiW Guest: Serah Kasembeli I had never crossed the border to the neighbouring Uganda, even though our home is very close to the Kenya-Uganda Busia border. The idea of crossing into what has always been there yet unexplored, resonated in many… Read More ›

• “An act of inspiration”: Review of La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono

  By Africa in Words Guest on 5 November , 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  AiW Guest: Karina M. Szczurek  Trifonia Melibea Obono’s La Bastarda was first published two years ago in its original Spanish by Feminist Press and has now become the first novel by an Equatorial Guinean woman writer to be translated into… Read More ›

• Q&A: Serah Kasembeli on Reading Student Protests from YouTube

  By Africa in Words Guest on 3 November , 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Tadiwa Madenga A few years ago, I started to feel like I was learning everything I knew from YouTube. It was exciting to find a free archive with endless live recordings from concerts, artists’ interviews, hair tutorials, and… Read More ›

• Genre, Politics, and Southern Superheroes: Review of Bill Masuku’s Captain South Africa

  By Africa in Words Guest on 29 October , 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  AiW Guest: Dominic Davies.  A little over two years ago I travelled to Cape Town to attend FanCon 2016, an event that was then South Africa’s most attended comics convention to date. As a researcher interested in graphic narratives from… Read More ›

• Q&A: Tinashe Mushakavanhu on Reading Zimbabwe from Kampala

  By Africa in Words Guest on 28 October , 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  AiW Guest: Tadiwa Madenga Before I travelled to Kampala, I found myself shockingly motivated to finish writing an academic paper. I had just moved from Boston to Brooklyn for the summer, and in that transition, a once tedious essay felt… Read More ›