Walking into Vroman’s—an independent bookstore in Pasadena, California, a place I’ve been coming since I was a kid—I was shocked to see Sarah Lotz’s name written neatly in red marker on the whiteboard announcing author talks. I’d just come back… Read More ›
A note of intro. from Africa in Words: Last year we took part in ‘Blogging the Caine Prize’ – a carnival of week-by-week blogging around the shortlist for the annual Caine Prize for African writing. While there is no ‘organised’ carnival… Read More ›
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 ›
AiW Guest Kristen Roupenian The back matter of Teju Cole’s novel Every Day Is for the Thief refers to an ‘unnamed narrator’, but if this is not meant to be the same character as Julius, our guide through 2011’s Open City, then Cole… Read More ›
For Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie readers in the UK, the film adaptation of Half of a Yellow Sun has been a long time coming. Widely anticipated by online forums including Adichie’s Facebook page, Half of a Yellow Sun’s world premier took… Read More ›
AiW Guest Toni Kan Literary prizes are strange animals. As subjective as they often are, they usually confer immediate entrée into the rarefied heights of the literary canon. And because they are strange animals, one is almost never surprised when… Read More ›
In my current capacity as Reviews Editor, I’d like to highlight in this post some of the new fiction that Africa in Words hopes to engage with in the coming months. While this list is by no means exhaustive and… Read More ›
AiW Guest jalida scheuerman-chianda The second time I met Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor she was sitting at a round wooden table in the garden of the Kwani? office in Nairobi, waiting to be interviewed on the launch of her debut novel… Read More ›
As a relatively new teacher of African history at universities, I am keen to find publications that will help me reflect upon, and develop my work. Unlike in most American PhD programmes (I understand) teaching isn’t part of the core… Read More ›
Last month I babysat a friend’s child. It was Friday night and there I was, sitting next to him in his bed: it was story telling time. I drew from a pile of books a colourfully covered one, with a… Read More ›
Following on from last week’s Mandela retrospective, here are some posts readers may wish to revisit – or discover for the first time from the AiW 2013 archive. If you’re a fan of the ‘best of’ lists that dominate publishing… Read More ›
Africa in Words will be taking a short break from posting new content over the Christmas period, but we will be back refreshed and raring to go in January. Meanwhile, so you can still get your Africa in Words fix,… Read More ›
These are extremely interesting times for travel writing as a genre; a number of online- and print-based travel projects have been sprung up over recent years, all focusing on Africans travelling within Africa – some within their own countries, and… Read More ›
Teju Cole introducing Ivan Vladislavic in Chelsea: “One of the best writers in the world… one of the great modern prose stylists.” Agreed. — Africa is a Country (@AfricasaCountry) November 5, 2013 (Tweeted from 192 Books in New York, where Teju Cole, author… Read More ›
AiW Guest: Graham Riach. The first edition of new literary magazine Prufrock, which appeared in autumn this year, cuts quite a dash. The cover must be somewhere around a Pantone 2635c, I imagine, with a line drawing of J. Alfred’s… Read More ›
Femi Amogunla – also known as Femi Kayode and Ogbeni Femi, or ‘Mr Femi’ – is a spoken word poet based in Lagos. In 2012, Femi took part in 30 Nigeria House, a collaboration between Stratford East Theatre and New… Read More ›
by AiW Guest Jürg Schneider Between October 26 and November 16 of 2013 the fourth edition of the international photography festival LagosPhoto opened its doors to the public. The month long festival which includes exhibitions, workshops, artistic presentations and discussions is… Read More ›
We’ve had a busy twelve months at AiW, one full of firsts – such as our linked ‘Series’ posts featuring Guest contributors, and the beginnings of our Q&As. The blog has now been running for two years, and we’ve gained new followers… Read More ›
Earlier in the year Africa in Words editors and authors attended Africa Writes 2013 in London. This literature and book festival organized by the Royal African Society hosted some of the most exciting names in contemporary African literature at the… Read More ›
Following our interview with Emmanuel Iduma, and his insights into the founding and evolution of Saraba Magazine, we are excited to now be offering a taster of the magazine by sharing some extracts from the latest Art Issue. Emmanuel Iduma and Dami… Read More ›
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