Today, we are delighted to share an AiW Words On… Q&A with Modupe Daramola, founder of Noisy Streetss, a dynamic start-up publisher, on a mission, “to tell the authentic stories of young Nigerians and Africans, publishing them both within the… Read More ›
Nigeria
Words on… Maik Nwosu: A Voice above the fray (Q&A)
By AiW Guest: Sanya Osha. Maik Nwosu – a novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright and professor of English literary studies at the University of Denver, Colorado – is one of the more intriguing as well as enduring figures of… Read More ›
Review: The Alienated Migrant – Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s ‘Adjustment of Status’ (on the Caine Prize Shortlist 2024)
AiW Guest: Ekari Phiri. AiW note: Ekari’s piece continues our 2024 Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews series (the complete Caine Prize series is here), today, of Nigerian writer Samuel Kọ́láwọlé‘s shortlisted story, ‘Adjustment of Status’, published in New England Review, in… Read More ›
Review: Family Dynamics in Uche Okonkwo’s ‘Animals’ (on the Caine Prize shortlist 2024)
AiW Guest: Difrodah Mnyika. AiW note: this is the second in our 2024 Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews series (full series here); today, our review is of Nigerian writer Uche Oknonkwo’s shortlisted story, ‘Animals’, published in ZYZZYVA, in 2024. NB: Our… Read More ›
Review: Of Motherhood and Negotiation – ‘Breastmilk’ by ‘Pemi Aguda (on the Caine Prize shortlist 2024)
AiW Guest: Spemba Elias Spemba. AiW note: this is the first in our 2024 Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews series, of Nigerian writer ‘Pemi Aguda’s shortlisted story, ‘Breastmilk’, published in One Story, in 2021. NB: Our reviews may contain spoilers! Read… Read More ›
Q&As: Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s ‘Adjustment of Status’ – on the Caine Prize Shortlist 2024
With AiW Guest: Samuel Kọ́láwọlé. AiW note – on our 2024, now annual, AiW Caine Prize series: Continuing our ‘Words On / Caine Prize’ 2024 Shortlist series, in this Q&A, we hear from writer, Samuel Kọ́láwọlé (Nigeria), whose shortlisted story,… Read More ›
Q&As: Publishing Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s ‘Adjustment of Status’ in New England Review – the Caine Prize Shortlist 2024
With AiW Guest: Carolyn Kuebler, editor of New England Review. AiW note: Today, part of our now annual AiW Caine Prize series, is the first of our Writer-Publisher 2024 Caine Prize Shortlist Q&A duos, plugging in to our interests in prizes, publication… Read More ›
Q&As: Uche Okonkwo’s ‘Animals’ – on the Caine Prize Shortlist 2024
With AiW Guest: Uche Okonkwo. We’re continuing with a new series of ‘Words On’ Caine Prize Q&As, today featuring the first of our “twinned” sets with two writers whose stories were shortlisted for the 2024 Caine Prize, here with Uche… Read More ›
Q&As: ‘Pemi Aguda’s ‘Breastmilk’ – on the Caine Prize Shortlist 2024
With AiW Guest: ‘Pemi Aguda. AiW note: We’re continuing with a new series of ‘Words On’ Caine Prize Q&As, today featuring the first of our “twinned” sets with two writers whose stories were shortlisted for the 2024 Caine Prize, here… Read More ›
Q&As: Chika Unigwe, Chair of the Judging Panel – the Caine Prize Shortlist 2024
With AiW Guest: Chika Unigwe. AiW note – on the 2024 edition of our, now annual, AiW Caine Prize series… This week, our series of ‘Words on Q&As’ kick off a collaborative series based around the shortlist for the 2024… Read More ›
Spotlight on… Editing Anthologies: Doorways, Communities, and Reference Texts
With AiW Guests: Chris Abani, Kwame Dawes, Joanne Hichens, and Hilda Twongyeirwe.Edited by: Ashawnta Jackson and Jessica Powers for #readingAfrica 2024 (Catalyst Press). Jackson and Powers: Anthologies offer readers the opportunity to explore multiple writers — their voices, experiences, and… Read More ›
Spotlight Q&A: Editors & Writers talk – Ucheoma Onwutuebe’s ‘Where Are You and Where Is My Money’, with Lydia Mathis
AiW Guests: Ucheoma Onwutuebe and Lydia Mathis. AiW note: what follows is an email conversation between Nigerian writer Ucheoma Onwutuebe and 2023 Editorial Fellow at New York based literary magazine A Public Space, Lydia Mathis, held in October 2023. With… Read More ›
Review: Tragedy and Resilience in Lagos – The Truth About Sadia by Lola Akande
AiW Guest: Ademola Adesola. Lola Akande’s latest novel, The Truth about Sadia (Tunmike Publishers, 2023), follows Sadia Onaolapo Oyelowo’s journey from childhood to adulthood. Set in a recognizable Lagos, Nigeria, so crucial is Sadia to the novel that every “truth”… Read More ›
Review: Between Self and Selflessness in Protest – ‘Taduno’s Song’ by Odafe Atogun
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè. Odafe Atogun’s début novel, Taduno’s Song (2016), is an extended allegory about a people living through the tangle of social oppression and its attendant anxieties. Through a focus on music, specifically voice and song, it explores… Read More ›
Review: The Renegade Poet, ‘Femi Morgan, coming through ‘The Year of Fire’
AiW Guest: Ugochukwu Anadị. ‘Femi Morgan’s most recent collection The Year of Fire (Baron’s Cafe, 2021) is a poetry of lamentations, of anger, and of defiant resilience. Forming itself around (re)negotiations, of the self and space, the slim volume of… Read More ›
Review Q&A: with author Ever Obi – Some Angels Don’t See God (2022)
AiW Guests: Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè with author Ever Obi. This Q&A and twinned review, “The Past Is Never Dead” – both by our AiW Guest, traveller, literary critic and writer Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè – may contain spoilers, but these are kept to the… Read More ›
Review: “What of This Fire, What of Butterflies?” – Yellow Means Stay, the 2020 Afritondo Prize Anthology
AiW note: Afritondo is a media and publishing platform which aims to improve diversity in publishing by offering African and Black minority writers a platform on which to tell their stories. Afritondo publishes stories, essays, commentaries, and poems by established,… Read More ›
Review: “Growing up lesbian in Nigeria”: Unoma Azuah’s “Embracing My Shadow”
AiW Guest: Pernille Nailor. Written in a clear and powerful language that commands our immediate attention, Unoma Azuah’s latest publication, Embracing My Shadow, is a moving and powerful memoir focusing on the author’s experiences of growing up as lesbian in… Read More ›
Q&As: Joshua Chizoma – AKO Caine Prize shortlist 2022
AiW note: this year, as part of our now annual AKO Caine Prize for African Writing coverage, we have published AiW Guest reviews of each of the 5 stories shortlisted for the 2022 award. Leading up to the winner announcement… Read More ›
Q&A with Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike ~ Things that Matter & that Made Me
Today, we are delighted to be sharing a couple of new quickfire AiW Q&As with Nigerian writer Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, where we talk about “Things that Matter” to makers’ and thinkers’ processes and selves… In this case, we’re talking books… Read More ›