Experimental YA novel, representative and complex: When We Speak of Nothing. AiW note: Looking back to the seemingly different world of last March 2019, our #PastAndPresent post this week – a review of Olumide Popoola’s YA novel, When We Speak… Read More ›
Katie Reid
Words from… the bedside…
(… that’s table or nightstand, not manners…) For any book lover – your average bibliophile type – editing the “bedside table reads” listicle, at least enough for public consumption, may be revealing: how many unread books do you *really have… Read More ›
Review – An Artist’s Awakening: Two Women in One by Nawal El Saadawi
Following on from our review of Saqi Books’ 2020 reprint of Nawal El Saadawi’s The Fall of the Imam (first published in 1987), ‘A Dizzying Tale of Duality’, we are now reviewing the second in our series of their re-releases,… Read More ›
Words on… Februarys past and present: digital spaces and archive connections
A dip in and through our site archives and some Februarys past and present… Because Heroes and Scholars are everywhere (see here for the AiW Q&A of that title, between AiW Guest Aurelie Journo and Abu Amirah, founder of writers’… Read More ›
Review – Against conventions: on Femi Morgan’s Renegade (2019)
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè. Sometimes, impositions on our spaces and feelings – in the form of law, tradition or custom – try to curtail our inclinations and stifle our freedom of expression. In some nations subject to despotic regimes, restrictions are… Read More ›
Festive Favourites: Season’s Reading from Africa in Words
It is that time of year again when the holiday spirit begins to grow. For some, it is a time to spend with family and get away from it all. For others, the holidays might just be a good chance… Read More ›
A Tragic Story of War: Discussing Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love at the BBC Bookclub
AiW Guest Zahra Banday Zahra Banday attended a recent recording of BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub discussing Aminatta Forna’s novel The Memory of Love (2011). The BBC Bookclub programme aired on 1st September 2019; you can listen again here, or catch… Read More ›
“Corridors of storytelling” in contemporary African culture: Small Magazines at Africa Writes – Sunday July 1st, 2018
AiW Guest: Sumayya Lee. AiW note: This is the fifth in a series of posts for Africa in Words exploring the networked series of research, events, and discussions, ‘Small Magazines, Literary Networks and Self-Fashioning in Africa and its Diasporas’. Here… 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 ›
‘The archive of my life’: The UK pre-launch of Akwaeke Emezi’s autobiographical novel ‘Freshwater’ at Africa Writes 2018
AiW Guest: Sana Goyal. It’s the Saturday afternoon of the Africa Writes weekend in London — the 2018 edition. Sitting in the second row of the Auditorium at the British Library, I hear several excitable voices over my shoulder. And… Read More ›
AiW at the 2018 Edinburgh International Books Festival – Freedom.
AiW are gearing up for Edinburgh International Books Festival – beginning tomorrow Aug 11 – and this year’s series of books events on the theme of freedom, through which the Festival “calls upon its authors, participants and audiences to consider… Read More ›
Building an Archive – Voices from the Panel “Loving Womxn: Deliberate and Afraid of Nothing” at the 2018 Africa Writes Festival
AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin. It was the second day of the Africa Writes Festival, a week ahead of Black Pride. The heatwave beat on in London whilst, in the British Library, the animated festival crowd buzzed and mingled to and… Read More ›
Event: ‘The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela’ – with English PEN
Tuesday 17 July, 7.00pm (6.30pm doors) Union Chapel, London N1 2UN Tickets unionchapel.org.uk https://www.englishpen.org/event/celebrating-nelson-mandela-his-letters-his-legacy/ #PENmandelaletters Tuesday next week in London (a London fairly humming right now with the large-scale political ramifications of what it is to be ‘free’ in movement,… Read More ›
Africa in Words at Africa Writes 2018
In among the generosity and wealth of Africa Writes’ offerings this year – new and fresh events, workshops, panels and conversations – see our Event Preview here and the Africa Writes programme with further details on their website, with advance… Read More ›
Event: Black Book Swap 10 (London, Sat. Nov 18)
BLACK BOOK SWAP 10 Saturday 18 November 2017 – Omnibus Theatre, London SW4 0QW Black Book Swap, London’s premier event dedicated to the work of Black authors, returns on Saturday 18 November, from 12:30 – 4:45pm. Get your tickets for the tenth… Read More ›
Event: Bertha DocHouse presents: Thank You for the Rain
Bertha DocHouse (London) presents Thank You for the Rain From 17 November | Bertha DocHouse (based at Curzon, Bloomsbury)| Tix £9 (£7 conc.) From Friday, 17th November, Bertha DocHouse (dochouse.org – who recently brought us the debut feature from Swedish director Theresa Traoré… Read More ›
4 Years, 42 Honeycomb Grain Silos, 1 Remarkable Museum – Will Zeitz MOCAA take us into an Afrofuture?
AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin. September was a busy month of cultural events in South Africa. The Jozi Book Fair in Johannesburg took place over three days from 31st August to 3rd September. The Open Book Festival followed in Cape Town… Read More ›
Event: African Writers, Readers and Historians Gather in London to Remember Makerere.
Africa in Words Guest: Robert Gates. SOAS African Literatures Conference: 55 years after the first Makerere African Writers Conference Saturday 28 October 2017 | 9.30am-7.30pm Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre | SOAS University of London bit.ly/SOASAfrLitsTix African writers-novelists, playwrights, poets and… Read More ›
Q&A: The Importance of Writing and the Benefits of Travel – An interview with Iman Verjee at Open Book 2017.
AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin. Iman Verjee is a novelist living in Nairobi, Kenya with two novels published by the award-winning independent, Oneworld Publications: Who will Catch us as we Fall (2016) and In Between Dreams (2014). Both novels were promoted… Read More ›
Voices from the Seventh Edition of the Open Book Festival, Cape Town, 2017.
AiW Guest: Katarzyna Kubin. One of the most exciting, world-class literary events, the Open Book Festival, takes place annually at the start of spring in Cape Town, South Africa, spear-headed by the independent bookshop, The Book Lounge, and the renowned Fugard… Read More ›