As we move through the changed circumstances, timelines and spaces of now, our round-up of ‘other words’ – news on AiW’s radar, collated from across our platforms – has moved to a monthly edition for April. Please be in touch… Read More ›
Katie Reid
Q&A – Barbara Adair’s Words on the Times for her novel, ‘WILL, The Passenger Delaying Flight…’ (Modjaji Books)
In a dystopian world that has served up an imperfect future, Adair breathes life into the limbo and emotional baggage of her characters as they travel across the world. Karabo K. Kgoleng – broadcaster, public speaker, writer Recently we caught up… Read More ›
Review: What Diaspora Means Now – Nuruddin Farah’s ‘North of Dawn’
AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi. AiW note: We caught up with novelist, poet, and professor of World Literature – our guest author and reviewer here, Rashi Rohatgi – to ask for some of her Words on the times – an AiW… Read More ›
Online event: ‘The Cape Cod Bicycle War’ – Billy Kahora in conversation at the Polis Project’s Virtual Book Salon
Writer and editor Billy Kahora’s highly anticipated story collection, The Cape Cod Bicycle War: and Other Stories – originally published by Huza Press (Kigali) in 2019 and available in Africa – made its US debut with Ohio University Press this… 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 ›
Words on… March, past & present – re-presenting Olumide Popoola’s ‘When We Speak of Nothing’ review
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 ›
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 ›