Literary blog and archiving platform Brittle Paper turns 10 this year! Happy birthday BP! This month we take up their invitation to join their celebrations in their #DecadeProject with a post marking the last ten years as a significant decade… Read More ›
Shortly before Namwali Serpell became the sixteenth winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, I had the chance to ask her a couple of questions about reading her winning story ‘The Sack’ and its many modes of uncertainty. This Q&A forms part… Read More ›
I am leaning toward a prediction that Namwali Serpell will be the winner of this year’s Caine Prize for a number of reasons. For starters, a win for Serpell would go some way to deflecting one of the major criticisms… Read More ›
In her Editor’s Note to the recently published Africa39 anthology, Ellah Allfrey asserts, “There is no danger of ‘a single story’ here.” She is referencing, of course, Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk, in which Adichie argues that a singular narrative about any… Read More ›
Africa in Words is taking a break from our regular content over the festive season, but we’ll be back from next week. In the meantime, it’s that time of year for best-of lists, and the African literature and arts blogosphere… Read More ›
Following the recent launch of the Africa39 anthology, which selected and celebrates new work from the most promising 39 authors under the age of 40 from Sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora, four writers published in the collection will appear in dialogue with editor Ellah… Read More ›
AiW Guest Alexander Nderitu Writers from the Africa39 list were in conversation at this year’s Storymoja Festival which took place from 17th to 21st September in Nairobi, Kenya. The young authors, ably moderated by Kenyan academic and literary critic Keguro Macharia, were: Jackee… Read More ›
With a remit to explore how African art and ideas can change the world for the better: how Africa can lead the way in thinking about culture, community, technology, fashion, sustainability and ethical wealth creation, Africa Utopia was a three-day… Read More ›
The most promising voices from Africa South of the Sahara joined in an anthology published by Bloomsbury. Discover the best new writing from Africa South of the Sahara, by 39 writers under 40 – with an introduction by Nobel Prize laureate Wole… Read More ›
Africa Utopia Southbank Centre, London Thursday 11th – Sunday 14th September 2014 Following 2012’s sensational first edition, Africa Utopia is back for 2014 to once again look at what can be learnt and celebrated from Africa and the African diaspora…. Read More ›
Today, more and more literary events happen online. Readers argue over the plotlines of serialized ‘Facebook fiction.’ Writers tweet entire novels. And a Google Hangout with an author will draw a larger crowd than a signing at a local bookstore…. Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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