Writing South Africa Now: A Colloquium, July 2nd, 2013 Faculty of English, University of Cambridge Tuesday, July 2nd 2013 Confirmed Plenary speaker: Dr Nadia Davids (Queen Mary, University of London) ‘Writing and Performing South Africa’s Past in the Present: an Exploration of… Read More ›
Katie Reid
Short Story Day Africa 2013
“Short Story Day Africa exists because we have something to tell the world. About us. In our own voices.” Now in its third year, Short Story Day Africa sets aside the shortest day (or night) of the year – this year it’s… Read More ›
Blogging the Caine Prize – Pede Hollist’s ‘Foreign Aid’
Coming to the Caine Prize blog party late in terms of Pede Hollist’s ‘Foreign Aid’, I’m aware that a lot of the ground on this story has already been covered – see the end of this post for links to… Read More ›
Pulp what? At the Franschhoek Literary Festival – 17-19 May
Looking forward to chatting about all things African pulp fiction (with pulp zine Jungle Jim in the main frame from at least me) at this year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival – with Sean O’Toole, Jenna Bass (of Jungle Jim editorial fame, among a host of other fames), Stacy… Read More ›
The Chimurenga Chronic, now-now – first print issue of pan-African gazette
Now available from Chimurenga [from the Shona word for “revolutionary struggle”]: the CHRONIC – a new pan-African quarterly print gazette, with supplementary books review magazine CHRONIC BOOKS – see below for a preview of Billy Kahora‘s article on the Nairobi noir. The first issue takes… Read More ›
Review: Sowei Mask: Spirit of Sierra Leone at the British Museum
The exhibit is centred around one Sierra Leonean mask, a ‘sowei’ mask of the all-female Sande societies, worn at ritual public celebrations and ceremonies by the societies’ high officials when masquerading as the spirit of the Sande as ndoli jowei (‘the… Read More ›
AiW live on SAfm’s ‘Word of Mouth’ feature prompts a revisit of our Q&A (Pt 2) with Jenna Bass – Editor and co-founder of African pulp fiction magazine Jungle Jim.
Chatting to Nancy Richards about AiW on SAfm’s Word of Mouth feature, part of the Literature show, on Sunday (03/03), I was struck once again by the significance of the generative potential of literary and intellectual networks across the continent,… Read More ›
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 ›
Exorcizing Afropolitanism: Binyavanga Wainaina explains why “I am a Pan-Africanist, not an Afropolitan” at ASAUK 2012
AiW Guest Stephanie Bosch Santana. Traces of Binyavanga Wainaina’s address, “I am a Pan-Africanist, not an Afropolitan”, delivered at September’s African Studies Association UK 2012 conference, have lingered with me over the past few months: the image of invisible digital networks of… Read More ›
Tate: ‘Across the Board’ – modern and contemporary African art and related programme in Africa
Tate are currently running a two-year project on African Art and its representation, with new acquisitions of modern and contemporary African art and a related programme in Africa. “The project invites local and international audiences to engage with artists, curators and… Read More ›
ASAUK12: the legacy
AiW guest Helen Cousins. 2012 was the year of ‘legacy’ – a notion popularised, of course, by the London 2012 Olympics. Four months on from the African Studies Association UK conference, I want to reflect on my personal ‘legacy’ from… Read More ›
Reflections on the African Studies Association UK conference, University of Leeds, September 2012
AiW Guest Rebecca Jones. 2012’s ASAUK conference at the University of Leeds was my first ever ASAUK conference, and I went anticipating some interesting panels on African literature, hoping to meet fellow scholars of Yoruba, and, to be honest, expecting a… Read More ›
African Studies Association of the UK Biennial Conference, 6-8th September 2012, University of Leeds
Last Autumn we – Katie and Kate – attended the African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) biennial conference, where we co-convened two panels under the rubric ‘The “post-millennial context” and African writing in English: Writing, production and reception since… Read More ›
Genre and the New Geographies of World Literature: A look at Jungle Jim’s “South African Sci-Fi” issue
AiW Guest Stephanie Bosch Santana. The cover of Jungle Jim issue no. 16, the magazine’s “South African Sci-fi” edition, depicts Zulu warriors casting tiny, toothpick-like spears at the Goliath of an alien bearing down on them. Styled after the pulp magazines… Read More ›
From Roswell to Rosebank – South African SF and Jungle Jim
AiW Guest Graham Riach. On the front cover of issue 16 of Jungle Jim,a starry sky hangs low over two Zulu tribesmen, assegais held high behind their shields. Looming towards them is a muscle-bound giant with an insectoid robotic head,… Read More ›
‘Without warning, everything became possible’: pulp fiction and the rise of Jungle Jim
AiW Guest Alexander Howard. 1. As the author and editor Jenna Bass points out in the first instalment of her recent interview with Katie Reid of Africa in Words, the bi-monthly fiction magazine Jungle Jim arose out of a shared desire… Read More ›
Jim in the Urban Jungle – South African print culture and Jungle Jim
AiW Guest Ed Charlton. As an intervention into the formal space of South African print culture, Jungle Jim is certainly daring and distinctive. If not an entirely unique mode of literary production, its pulp ’zine format is, nonetheless, a marked… Read More ›
Concept-driven African pulp fiction – extracts from Jungle Jim magazine
Has having heard so much about the African pulp fiction mag Jungle Jim from its co-creator and editor, Jenna Bass (part I of our interview is here), left you wanting, wondering what might be lurking between its distinctive blue and red covers? How the… Read More ›
Q&A: (Pt 2) Jenna Bass – Editor and co-founder of African pulp fiction magazine Jungle Jim.
(Click here for part I.) This, part II of Katie’s interview with Jenna Bass at Jungle Jim, takes us further into the mag, opening up questions of genre – popular, pulp and science-fiction in Africa and South Africa – plus more on the… Read More ›