By AiW Guest Anneke Rautenbach. Tom Wolfe, as early as 1973, spoke of a new form of writing that “consumes devices that happen to have originated with the novel and mixes them with every other technique known to prose. And… Read More ›
Katie Reid
Review: Imraan Coovadia’s ‘The Institute for Taxi Poetry’
AiW Guest Tom Penfold. Imraan Coovadia’s The Institute of Taxi Poetry (Umuzi, 2012) is an appeal to the imagination – the reader’s and South Africa’s. Set through a week in the life of Adam Ravens as he tries to make sense of… Read More ›
Marli Roode, ‘Call it Dog’ and Achmat Dangor’s ‘Strange Pilgrimages’ – after Edinburgh Book Festival, 2013
This post draws together reflections on two sessions from the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2013, featuring books from or about South Africa – one called Getting Over Apartheid with award-winning South African author Achmat Dangor (unfortunately, Sindiwe Magona had to cancel, so Dangor appeared alone), and another… Read More ›
Black Letter Media – call for speculative fiction submissions (Africa wide)
Black Letter Media Africa-wide call for unpublished speculative fiction (in English) Novel-length manuscripts They say, “Until the lion learns to speak the take of the hunt will always glorify the hunter”. Our vision, therefore, is to give voice to the… Read More ›
Lauren Beukes and African Science Fiction
Africa in Words Guest, Professor James Smith of the University of Edinburgh, writes: Professionally I research the role science and technology play in shaping Africa’s development. Thus I naturally have an interest in the writing of Lauren Beukes given her… Read More ›
Q&A: Henrietta Rose-Innes – ‘New Voices from South Africa’ at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Henrietta Rose-Innes is an award-winning South African writer based in Cape Town. I was lucky enough to be able to catch her at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in advance of her session, ‘New Voices from South Africa’, which is on the… Read More ›
The ‘Broken Hill’ skull (Lusaka National Museum collection) – Pratchaya Phinthong @ Chisenhale Gallery, London
PRATCHAYA PHINTHONG | ‘BROKEN HILL’ Chisenhale Gallery, London | 26 JULY – 1 SEPTEMBER 2013 Chisenhale Gallery presents a new commission by Bangkok based artist Pratchaya Phinthong for his first solo exhibition in the UK. Broken Hill explores the… Read More ›
Reminder: CFP North African Cinemas (Journal of African Cinemas)
Call for Papers Journal of African Cinemas – Special Issue on North African Cinema Guest Editor: Dr Stefanie Van de Peer North African cinema has suffered from neglect in studies on African cinema. It’s hinge-like geographical position – is it… Read More ›
South African authors (and more besides) at the Edinburgh International Book Festival -10-26 August, 2013
The Edinburgh International Book Festival, “the world’s largest public celebration of the written word, right in the heart of Edinburgh”, starts this Saturday, August 10th, and is celebrating its 30th birthday this year (fanfare! trrumpets!). Among the variety of dynamic… Read More ›
Borrowing the bookshelf: lessons in [virtual bookshelf] husbandry
I came across a meme recently “You know you’re a bookaholic when…” One was “when the first thing you look at in a friend’s house is the bookshelves”. I identified. I house sat for another Africa in Words writer recently,… Read More ›
Q&A: Colleen Higgs – publisher Modjaji Books
Colleen Higgs is the publisher and passionate, dynamic force behind Modjaji Books, a small independent press based in Cape Town, South Africa. Inspired by Modjadji, the Rain Queen of Limpopo, a powerful female force for good, growth, new life, and… Read More ›
The Small Publishers’ Catalogue 2013
This year sees the new edition of Modjaji Books’ Small Publishers’ Catalogue, which updates the first edition of 2010. Publishing Perspectives have called this one ‘a beauty’, and indeed it is, in concept and design. The print copy is, again, a lovely size, great… Read More ›
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 ›
Q&A: Poet, writer and educator Warsan Shire
Warsan Shire is a Kenyan-born Somali poet, writer and educator based in London. Her poetry reads as both artistic and activist practice, documenting stories of journey, trauma and sexual violence, alienation, assimilation, transformation and recuperation. Warsan’s début book, Teaching My Mother… Read More ›
Writing South Africa Now: A Colloquium. University of Cambridge, 2 July.
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 ›
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 ›
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