AiW Guest: Carli Coetzee The title of Lola Akande’s novel What it Takes can be interpreted in more than one way. The novel can be read as a celebratory narrative of the extraordinary achievements of the protagonist, Funto Oyewole, as… Read More ›
Nigeria
Call for Submissions: Etisalat Prize for Literature 2018, deadline: 18 September 2017
Lagos, Nigeria, 26 June 2017: Following the successful completion of the fourth edition of its flagship pan-African literary prize, Nigeria’s most innovative telecommunications company, Etisalat, has announced a call for entries for the 2018 Etisalat Prize for Literature. The opening… Read More ›
Event: Kaduna Book & Arts Festival, 5-8 July 2017, Kaduna
As part of its centenary celebrations, Kaduna State is introducing a literary event to its cultural calendar. The Kaduna Book & Arts Festival 2017 (KABAFEST) will feature over 50 writers, artists, actors, poets and performers who will share their work with… Read More ›
Refreshingly focused on the fiction, but struggling for definition: a review of A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, edited by Ernest N. Emenyonu.
AiW Guest: Matthew Lecznar Since the turn of the 21st-century, few authors have been able to implant themselves on the global literary imagination with the kind of deftness and flare exhibited by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The author’s… Read More ›
Review of Illuminate Theatre Performance: Unsettling the Certainties of the Air-Conditioned Room
AiW Guest: Carli Coetzee The second conference of the Lagos Studies Association has just taken place, at the University of Lagos. The conference had many memorable moments, but the one that stands out for me was when the panel was… Read More ›
Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 5: ‘God’s Children Are Little Broken Things’ by Arinze Ifeakandu
AiW Guest: David Borman This week, we are featuring reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. The fifth and final review of the… Read More ›
Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 3: ‘Bush Baby’ by Chikodili Emelumadu
AiW Guest: Iquo DianaAbasi This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Today’s review is of Nigerian author Chikodili Emelumadu’s story… Read More ›
Caine Prize Shortlist Reviews, Part 2: ‘Who Will Greet You At Home’ by Lesley Nneka Arimah
AiW Guest: Kufre Usanga This week, we will feature reviews of the five stories shortlisted for the 2017 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize winner will be announced on Monday 3 July. Today’s review is of Nigerian author Lesley Nneka… Read More ›
‘”It’s a passport!” my inner voice yells’. Review of Lola Akinmade Åkerström’s Due North
AiW Guest: Janet Remmington With Nigerian passport in hand, fifteen-year-old Lola crossed the Atlantic to study in the US. The ‘little green book’ soon accumulated visas, each costing hundreds of dollars, as she took to traversing borders in different continents…. Read More ›
Woe and Womb: A Review of Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò
AiW Guest: Sana Goyal When asked about the seeds of her novel Stay With Me, Ayòbámi Adébáyò likes to tell the tale of how Yejide and Akin—two characters she created for a short story—persistently stayed in the corners of… Read More ›
Introduction to the filmmaker Tunde Kelani and review of his film Pyrolysis or Paralysis
AiW Guest: Babatunde Onikoyi Tunde Kelani is the preeminent Nigerian filmmaker and one of the most distinguished in Africa. His cinematographic endeavours, under the stables of Mainframe Television and Film Production and situated in the heart of the city of… Read More ›
Q&A: Beautiful Nubia: “Our music is art on a journey”
AiW Guest: Tope Salaudeen-Adegoke Beautiful Nubia, the stage name for Segun Akinlolu, is widely acclaimed by music critics as Nigeria’s foremost contemporary folklorist. He is an artist with a vibrant soul who combines the Yoruba traditional percussion with other modern… Read More ›
After a long break, Nigerian Theatre picks up
AiW Guest: Pelu Awofeso Actor and performance coach Toyin Oshinaike is teaching 80 thespians in an actors’ workshop at the Lagos Theatre Festival (28 Feb-5 March); all on their feet and attentive, they form a large rectangular ring around him…. Read More ›
Anietie Isong’s Radio Sunrise shortlisted for the Kingston University Big Read 2017
Radio Sunrise by Anietie Isong has been shortlisted for the Kingston University Big Read project. The novel is one of the six shortlisted titles to be considered for staff and students to read before the 2017 academic year begins. … Read More ›
Event: Lagos Theatre Festival, 28 Feb – 05 March 2017, Lagos
Lagos Theatre Festival 28 February – 05 March 2017 Lagos Theatre Festival founded by British Council in 2013, is a festival to present performing arts from Nigeria and the UK every february in Lagos. It has a part focus… Read More ›
Ake Review 2015: interviews, short fiction and art
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè continues his in-depth discussion of the Ake Review 2015. Read Part I, which discusses poetry, here. Ten Questions: African writers discuss their work The Ten Questions section of the Ake Review features festival guests… Read More ›
Ake Review 2015: Engaging the Fringe Through Literature
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè The official annual Ake Arts and Book Festival journal, Ake Review, gives insights into the festival guests’ takes on many issues, from the mundane to the atypical, and features creative works from other writers. A journal of… Read More ›
76 – a beautifully-told film about Nigeria’s pre-democracy years
AiW Guest: Yemisi Arowosafe Telling a historical tale as authentically and accurately as possible is one that every good story teller strives to attain. The Nigerian pre-democracy story is one that has been told in a myriad of fictional texts,… Read More ›
African literature and the next generation of writing back
AiW Guest: Rashna Batliwala Singh In his now iconic essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent” T. S. Eliot famously says “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his… Read More ›
Q&A: poet-psychiatrist Femi Oyebode on literature, medical humanities and the mind
AiW Guest: Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè Femi Oyebode is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham, UK, and the current author of Sim’s Symptoms in the Mind (4th edition). His other books include Mindreadings: literature and psychiatry & Madness at the Theatre…. Read More ›
