Ahead of the announcement of the AKO Caine Prize’s winner today at 5pm BST, we were able to catch up with Erica Sugo Anyadike, Chikodili Emelumadu, Jowhor Ile, Rémy Ngamije for their Words on the Times – an AiW Q&A set inspired… Read More ›
Caine Prize
Caine Prize 2020: Fiction masquerading as nonfiction: A Review of Chikodili Emelumadu’s “What to do When Your Child Brings Home a Mami Wata”
AiW Note: AiW’s annual review series of what is now the AKO Caine Prize is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis’s post on our joining the Caine Prize “blogathon” back in… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2020: “Every day is today”: A Review of Rémy Ngamije’s “The Neighbourhood Watch”
AiW Note: AiW’s annual review series of what is now the AKO Caine Prize is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis’s post on our joining the Caine Prize “blogathon” back… Read More ›
Words on… Past & Present: re-presenting Jumoke Verissimo’s review of Elnathan John’s ‘Born on a Tuesday’ – The Truth Outside Context
AiW note: This re-post of Jumoke Verissimo’s review of Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday (Cassava Republic, 2016), was first published on AiW as part of the celebrations for the launch of Cassava Republic Press in the UK, back on this same… Read More ›
In other Words… AiW news and quarterly wrap (Jan-March 2020)
A round-up of other words – our top posts & quarterly news – on AiW’s radar, collated from across our platforms, January through March (with an added wish for safety and health for you and yours as we head on… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Lesley Nneka Arimah’s “Skinned”
AiW Guest: Tolulope Akinwole AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back, adding to our conversations over the years about prizes and prize culture – see Kate Wallis’ kick off from back in 2013. In the coming days we are… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Cherrie Kandie’s “Sew My Mouth”
AiW Guest: Temitayo Olofinlua This is the third in AiW’s annual Caine Prize for African Writing review series, reviewing all five of the shortlisted stories of 2019’s offerings. We’ve long used the opportunity to talk through the writing recognised by… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Meron Hadero’s “The Wall”
AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back with this, the second in our reviews of the five shortlisted stories for 2019. In the spirit of our broader and longer conversations about prize culture at Africa in Words – Kate Wallis… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2019 Shortlist: A Review of Ngwah-Mbo Nana Nkweti’s “It Takes A Village Some Say”
AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis started off this series in 2013. In the coming days we are featuring reviews of the stories… Read More ›
An African Literary Calendar: 15 Books on Our Radar Right Now
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 ›
Event: Caine Prize Shortlist Conversation (28th June, London)
The Library at Willesden Green invites you to a conversation with the Caine Prize for African Writing 2018 shortlist On Thursday 28th June 2018 From 6.30pm The Caine Prize for African Writing is a literature prize awarded to an African… Read More ›
South African author, Henrietta Rose-Innes, on cityscapes, self-contained stories, and Cape Town
AiW Guest: Sana Goyal Edited excerpts from the Conversations in Bloomsbury event (March 10, 2017), held at SOAS, London, and which hosted Henrietta Rose-Innes and Brian Chikwava. When Brian Chikwava and Henrietta Rose-Innes found themselves at SOAS for a… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2016: “Memories We Lost”—The Text, Its Readers and the World, a review by Pede Hollist
AiW Guest Pede Hollist The biography at the end of “Memories We Lost” quotes South African writer, filmmaker, and photographer Lidudumalingani as saying, “I am fascinated by mental illnesses, having seen my own extended relatives deal with it.” He also… Read More ›
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 ›
Review: Lusaka Punk and Other Stories – the Caine Prize Anthology 2015
AiW Guest: Madhu Krishnan In the just sixteen years that it has existed, the Caine Prize for African Writing has made an indelible mark, if not on African literature itself, then certainly on the critical discourses which surround it. With… Read More ›
Q&A: Pede Hollist
Posted in the run up to our review of the Caine Prize 2015 anthology Lusaka Punk and Other Stories, as part of a follow up series to our 2015 Blogging the Caine Prize – open to the ongoing public conversation the prize, and… Read More ›
Q&A: Namwali Serpell
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 ›
Q&A: Masande Ntshanga
Posted in the run up to our review of the Caine Prize 2015 anthology Lusaka Punk and Other Stories, as part of a follow up series to our 2015 Blogging the Caine Prize – open to the ongoing public conversation the prize, and… Read More ›
Q&A: F.T. Kola
Recognising the critical debate that has surrounded it this year and in the past, AiW has followed the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing by Blogging the Caine Prize again this year. Acknowledging the wider conversation, new and regular authors have shared… Read More ›
Blogging the Caine Prize: Segun Afolabi’s ‘The Folded Leaf’
AiW Guest: John Uwa In reviewing Segun Afolabi’s ‘The Folded Leaf’, a short story shortlisted for Caine Prize 2015, one must resist the temptation to mounting up praises on the text. It is certainly a well-articulated and thematically focused text; and… Read More ›