Author Archives
Kate Wallis is Lecturer in World Literatures in the Department of English at the University of Exeter. She is currently working on a monograph exploring pan-African literary networks post-2000 building on her doctoral research on Kwani Trust, Farafina and Cassava Republic Press. Her work has been published in Wasafiri and Research in African Literatures, and she is co-editor of a forthcoming special
issue of Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies on ‘New Approaches to Literary Activism in 21st Century Africa’. She is a Director for Kigali-based publishing company Huza Press and an Editor (and co-founder) of www.africainwords.com.
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Q&A: Literary scholar and novelist Elleke Boehmer on ‘Postcolonial Writers Make Worlds’
Yesterday evening marked the beginning of ‘Great Writers Inspire at Home’ – a series of workshops running over the next term at the University of Oxford which puts reading groups into dialogue with contemporary British writers, including Aminatta Forna and… Read More ›
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Rwanda in Photographs (exhibition closes Wednesday April 30th)
On Saturday morning I went to look again at the ‘Rwanda in Photographs: Death Then, Life Now‘ exhibition at Somerset House. Curated by Zoe Norridge and Mark Sealy, the exhibition grew out of a photography workshop in Kigali convened… Read More ›
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Q&A: Jalada – pan-African writers’ collective
New pan-African writers’ collective Jalada formed last June and published their first anthology ‘Sketch of a Bald Woman in the Semi-Nude and Other Stories’ in January. Heralded by Binyavanga Wainaina as a new generation of writers producing exciting and original work, Jalada is already achieving significant critical… Read More ›
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Making lists: Africa39
List culture has become as ‘ubiquitous’ a feature of contemporary cultural life as the prize culture James English writes about in his seminal The Economy of Prestige. Lists from The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 to Granta’s Best Young British… Read More ›
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Q&A: Judy Kibinge – Writer, director and film maker
Judy Kibinge is a Kenyan writer, director and film maker. Her debut film Dangerous Affair (2002) won the overall award at the 2003 Zanzibar Film Festival and she won Best Director at the 2009 Kalasha Awards for her film Killer… Read More ›
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Q&A: Emmanuel Iduma – Writer and Co-Founder of Saraba Magazine
Emmanuel Iduma co-founded the Nigerian literary magazine Saraba in 2009. The magazine, now in its 14th issue, aims to ‘create unending voices by publishing the finest emerging writers’. Each issue is published in PDF and ‘themed’ – with recent editions… Read More ›
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‘Love is Power or Something Like That’ by A. Igoni Barrett – review
It feels exceptionally hard in a short review to do justice to the layers of story, character and life in A. Igoni Barrett’s second collection of short stories Love is Power or Something Like That. The characters that people these stories range across generation… Read More ›
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Q&A: Novelist, poet and literary scholar Mukoma wa Ngugi
Mukoma wa Ngugi, son of world renowned African writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o, is currently in London with his father for a public conversation at the Africa Writes festival, and the launch of his new crime fiction novel Black Star Nairobi…. Read More ›
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Africa in Words at Africa Writes 2013
This weekend all three editors of Africa in Words will be at Africa Writes 2013 in London – an African literature and book festival hosted by the Royal African Society. The festival is hosting some of the most exciting names… Read More ›
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Literary Prizes: Joining the Caine Prize ‘Blog-Carnival’
Last week saw the announcement of the shortlist for the 14th Caine Prize for African Writing. The shortlist of 5 stories was selected by judges Gus Casely-Hayford (Chair), Sokari Douglas Camp, John Sutherland, Nathan Hensley and Leila Aboulela out of… Read More ›
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Yari Yari Ntoaso: Continuing the Dialogue
Yari Yari Ntoaso: Continuing the Dialogue is a symposium of literature by women of African descent taking place in Accra, Ghana, May 16-19, 2013. This free gathering will put writers, critics, and readers from across Africa, the USA, Europe, and the Caribbean in dialogue with… Read More ›
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Q&A: Goretti Kyomuhendo – Writer, Co-founder of FEMRITE and Founder-Director of the African Writers Trust
As avid AiW readers will know, last Autumn at the African Studies Association of the UK Biennial Conference, Katie Reid and I co-convened a series of panels on ‘The “post-millennial context” and African writing in English: Writing, production and reception since… Read More ›
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What’s On: African Book Festival, London
Just wanted to share information about the ‘African Book Festival’ happening in London at the end of the month. It is taking place over Friday 26th and Saturday 27th October at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon.
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Kwani? Manuscript Project
Since March of this year, I’ve been working with Billy Kahora at Kwani Trust as Associate Editor on a new literary prize for unpublished fiction manuscripts. Offering cash prizes totaling 525,000 Kenyan Shillings, the Kwani? Manuscript Project calls for the submission… Read More ›
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Words Without Borders
Words without Borders, an online magazine of international literature in English translation, seeks submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for an issue of African women’s writing.
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Introducing Material Books
My next few posts on ‘Africa in Words’ are going to be focused on things I’ve been up to ‘professionally’, rather than my ‘research’ – although the two have some nicely blurred lines and intersections. This is partly because I… Read More ›
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Professor Micere Githae Mugo: Public Lecture at the University of Nairobi
Last month I was lucky enough to catch Micere Mugo’s public lecture and book launch at the University of Nairobi. In an attempt to share some more informal thoughts and reflections, I just wanted to post about a couple of… Read More ›
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Conflict, Memory and Reconciliation: Bridging Past, Present and Future, SIT and National University of Rwanda, 10-13th January, Kigali
I attended this conference in Kigali last month, and just wanted to share a few thoughts and highlights from it. In his introduction one of the two keynote speakers, Professor Anastase Shyaka, highlighted that Rwanda is an evidence-base for research… Read More ›
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How Africa Tweets
An interesting piece of research analysing tweets from Africa over the past three months is commented on today in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/graphic/2012/jan/26/how-africa-tweets-portland#_ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/26/african-twitter-map-continent-connected?intcmp=239 For me it was particularly helpful to be able to see that the two countries I’m focusing… Read More ›
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Heal the Nation: Documentary Launch, 23 October 2011
Last month I was in Nairobi for the launch of the documentary ‘Heal the Nation’. This 30 minute film was created by Picha Mtaani (Swahili for ‘street exhibition’) a UN-funded initiative that focuses on reconciliation through ‘photographic exhibitions and debate’… Read More ›
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