AiW note: Dreams and Assorted Nightmares is Ibrahim’s third book and second story collection, newly released with Masobe Books. In the interview below, Umezurike and Ibrahim discuss the interconnecting fantastical short stories of the collection, their exploration of the “spaces… Read More ›
Nigeria
Q&A Words on the Times, Outriders Africa: Emmanuel Iduma
Today we have the pleasure of sharing our final post in the Words on the Times, Outriders Africa series with Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma, with an excerpt from his travelogue A Stranger’s Pose. Iduma was born in Akure, Nigeria and… Read More ›
Q&A Words on the Times, Outriders Africa: Wanjiru Koinange
Today, we have the pleasure of sharing a Words on the Times, Outriders Africa with Kenyan writer Wanjiru Koinange, with an excerpt from her novel The Havoc of Choice. Wanjiru was raised on a farm on the outskirts of Nairobi,… Read More ›
Here’s My Body, Take it! A Review of Romeo Oriogun’s ‘A Sacrament of Bodies’
AiW Guest: Tikondwe Kaphagawani Chimkowola. Romeo Oriogun’s Sacrament of Bodies (2020) opens with a quote from Kazim Ali that mourns, “in one place everyone looks like me – has my name – I am the most foreign”. This longing for… Read More ›
Q&A: Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike interviews Ukamaka Olisakwe, author of “Ogadinma” (2020).
AiW note: Ukamaka Olisakwe’s Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All Right was released with Indigo Press in September and from Masobe Books on the 27th October this year – marking itself as a “feminist classic in the making” (Indigo). Here, Uchechukwu… Read More ›
Words on Teaching – Joanna Woods and Nicklas Hållén
AiW note: In our “Teaching” focus as part of our “Words on…” series, we’re thinking around print culture – books, images, texts, mags, spaces – and broad senses of what “teaching” might be, do, mean, or how it might produce… Read More ›
Q&A: “Ceremony is always imbued with sound”: Composer Peter Adjaye on soundscaping Toyin Ojih Odutola’s ‘A Countervailing Theory’
Peter Adjaye is a contemporary conceptual sound artist, specialising in cross disciplinary collaborations. He is a musicologist, composer, DJ-producer and musician. His unique set of skills and vast experience have enabled him to work closely with his brother, the award-winning… Read More ›
Q&A: Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike interviews Prof. Cajetan Iheka
Cajetan Iheka is Associate Professor of English in the Department of English at Yale University, United States. In the following conversation with Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike – PhD Candidate and Vanier Scholar in the English and Film Studies department of the… Read More ›
Words on the Times | #PastAndPresent: Revisiting Kólá Túbòsún and Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike in conversation
AiW note: After our post on the poetry collection Edwardsville by Heart, reviewed for us yesterday by Tade Ipadeola,we are delighted to be able to share Words on the Times with the book’s author, Kọlá Túbọsún, and Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike,… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2020: Review of Jowhor Ile’s “Fisherman’s Stew”
AiW Note: AiW’s annual review series of what is now the AKO Caine Prize is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis’s post on our joining the Caine Prize “blogathon” back in… Read More ›
Caine Prize 2020: Fiction masquerading as nonfiction: A Review of Chikodili Emelumadu’s “What to do When Your Child Brings Home a Mami Wata”
AiW Note: AiW’s annual review series of what is now the AKO Caine Prize is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis’s post on our joining the Caine Prize “blogathon” back in… Read More ›
Q&A: Débọ̀ Awẹ́ on his Yoruba-language literary career
Débọ̀ Awẹ́ is a writer, a retired secondary school headteacher and a minister of God in Praise for Christ Ministries International. He is also the CEO of Elyon Publishers, a publishing company in Iléṣà, Ọ̀șun State, Nigeria, where he lives…. Read More ›
Caine Prize 2020: Tragedy and Trauma in a Roland Mouret Jacket: A Review of Grace Jones by Irenosen Okojie
AiW Note: AiW’s annual Caine Prize review series is back. We’ve been talking about prize culture for a long time at Africa in Words; Kate Wallis started off this series in 2013. Over the five Fridays in July, we are reviewing… 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 ›
A Box Full of Darkness: The Spaces of Trauma in Jumoke Verissimo’s “A Small Silence”
AiW Guest: James Yeku. AiW note: Anticipating this review, yesterday Jumoke Verissimo, author of A Small Silence (Cassava Republic), offered us her Words on the Times, a Q&A set that offers a space for connection in the experiences of the… 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 with writer Olumide Popoola: “If we can’t imagine anything different, we can never strive for change”
AiW note: This conversation follows on from our cast back to last March (2019) and Chelsea Haith’s review of the Q&A’s main text, Popoola’s 2017 novel, When We Speak of Nothing: ‘Experimental…Representative and Complex’ – #PastAndPresent . AiW Guests: René… Read More ›
Call for Submissions: The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2020 (Deadline: 31 March)
We are delighted to share that The Nigeria Prize for Literature is calling for entries for an edition in prose fiction and for an edition in literary criticism this year. The prize usually rotates among four literary genres – prose… Read More ›
Exhibition: Toyin Ojih Odutola at Barbican, London (Until 26 July)
Toyin Ojih Odutola “A Countervailing Theory” Open now, and until 26 July 2020 Barbican Centre, London The first-ever UK exhibition by Nigerian-American artist Toyin Ojih Odutola, this epic cycle of new work will explore an imagined ancient myth, with an… Read More ›