AiW note: Sana Goyal’s piece covering Africa Writes’ 2018 pre-launch of the UK edition of Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel, Freshwater, brings our range of #PastAndPresent posts over this first weekend in July 2020 – the weekend the in-person festival would… Read More ›
Katie Reid
2017 Africa Writes #P&P Highlights Reel: 2017 Caine Prize Conversation
AiW note: If AiW memory serves, since at least 2014, Africa Writes has hosted the Caine Prize shortlisted writers in conversation, prior to the announcement of the winner in July. At AiW, we’ve been reviewing the shortlisted stories and thinking… Read More ›
2015 Africa Writes #P&P – Losing my Head Because: Ben Okri’s Meditations on Greatness
AiW note: Bwesigye Bwa Mesigire’s reflections on Ben Okri’s headline event for the 2015 Africa Writes Festival form part of our #PastAndPresent weekend of re-posts of coverage of the festival over the years (from 2013-2018). The full timetable of our… Read More ›
2014 Africa Writes #P&P – What space is there for African travel writing? ‘Broadening the Gaze’
AiW note: Rebecca Jones was at the 2014 Africa Writes Festival in London. We republish her coverage of the African & Diaspora Travel Writing panel here as part of our Africa Writes #PastAndPresent weekender, anticipating the online conversations of the… Read More ›
2013 Africa Writes #P&P – Q&A: Poet, writer and educator Warsan Shire
AiW Note: this republication of a 2013 in-depth (long) and rich (vibrantly so) conversation between poet and activist Warsan Shire and Katie Reid of AiW marks the first post in our second day of Africa Writes #Past&Present revisits over this… Read More ›
2018 Africa Writes #P&P – Building an Archive – Voices from the Panel “Loving Womxn: Deliberate and Afraid of Nothing”
AiW note: this review of the panel ‘Loving Womxn’ at the 2018 Africa Writes Festival in London is part of our #Past&Present revisits of our coverage of the festival over the years, in the run-up to the digital conversations of… Read More ›
2016 Africa Writes #P&P Highlight Reel – ‘On Being a Woman Writer: Nawal El Saadawi’
AiW Note: As part of our Africa Writes #PastAndPresent weekend, and in the absence of the in-person festival in 2020, this highlight reel marks the headline event at Africa Writes 2016, “On Being a Woman Writer: Nawal El Saadawi in… Read More ›
2014 Africa Writes #P&P – Ama Ata Aidoo in Conversation: Review.
AiW note: this review of the great Ama Ata Aidoo in conversation with Dr Wangui wa Goro at Africa Writes’ 2014 edition is the second of our cast backs to our attendance at the Festival over the years, in the… Read More ›
Q&A: “It has lifted the spirits of many theatre makers who were feeling isolated and frustrated”: #LockdownShakespeare and Words on the Times
In April, with theatre stages empty following the COVID-19 pandemic, Shakespeare ZA — a project of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa (SSOSA), set up to promote the work of South African theatre-makers, film-makers, translators, researchers and writers engaging with… Read More ›
Words on the Times and a Past & (Everyone is) Present – Re-presenting Andrew van der Vlies’ review of Terry Kurgan’s “Everyone is Present”
AiW note: Yesterday, we published South African artist and photographer Terry Kurgan’s Words on the Times, an AiW Q&A set that offers a space for connection during the distancing measures necessitated by the coronavirus. In her responses, Kurgan discusses the copies… 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 ›
Words on… Past & Present: re-presenting Temitayo Olofinlua’s review of Jumoke Verissimo’s ‘A Small Silence’ – In the Dark
AiW note: Reposting this, Temitayo Olofinlua’s review, sees it as the third post this week in a mini-series around Jumoke Verissimo’s haunting and lyrical debut novel published last year, A Small Silence (Cassava Republic). Earlier in the week, Verissimo offered us… Read More ›
Q&A: Words on the Times – Jumoke Verissimo
“A Small Silence feels like an act of literary disruption. Hypnotic, expertly crafted and full of subtle power, it challenges cultural norms around silence, darkness and solitude, leaving the reader changed in ways that are hard to define.” Irenosen Okojie, Guardian… Read More ›
“A Thousand Tentative Tendrils”: Review of The Only Magic We Know: Selected Modjaji Poems 2004 to 2019
AiW Guest: Susanna Sacks. AiW note: This review is the fourth, and last, in a series of posts on the release of two anniversary collections from feminist indy press Modjaji Books – the short story anthology published last year, Fool’s Gold: Selected… Read More ›
“But Words Grow Up and Reverberate” (Arja Salafranca): Review of “Fool’s Gold: Selected Short Stories” from Modjaji Books
AiW Guest: Susanna Sacks. AiW note: This review is the third in a series of posts on the release of two new anniversary collections from feminist press Modjaji Books – the short story anthology published last year, Fool’s Gold, and… Read More ›
Words from… the bedside…
In today’s digest, our Reviews team – Wesley, Tom, and Katie – share two each of what’s on – or just on top – of their current bedside reading piles…
Q&A: “honoring the writers” – in conversation with Colleen Higgs, Modjaji Press
AiW Guest: Susanna Sacks. Two weeks ago, I caught up with Colleen Higgs, writer and publisher of the independent feminist press Modjaji Books, to discuss Modjaji’s history and her own publishing activism. Higgs founded Modjaji in 2007 to build space… Read More ›
Love, Loss and Migrant Womanhood: A Review of “Better Never Than Late” by Chika Unigwe
AiW Guest: Zahra Banday. AiW note: We caught up with our Guest Reviewer, Zahra Banday, for some of her Words on the Times – an AiW series of Q&As, connecting artists, writers, thinkers and educators in our new experiences of… Read More ›
Q&A: Words on the Times – Chika Unigwe
“This collection … is so wry and so generous, so astute about human deeds and misdeeds. Under Unigwe’s masterful hands, relationship – between Nigerians and Belgians, Naijas and Oyibo, priests and parish, bosses and workers, men and women, parents and… Read More ›
Q&A: Words on the Times – Colleen Higgs, writer & publisher Modjaji Books.
Colleen Higgs founded Modjaji Books in 2007 as a platform for work by women writers from southern Africa. Modjaji, the Rain Queen of Limpopo, is a “powerful female force for good, new life and regeneration”. The press continues her work… Read More ›