AiW Guest Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè AiW note: Our Guest Reviewer,Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè, reviews award-winning writer Femi Kayode’s debut novel Lightseekers, which was published by Raven Books and released in February 2021. You can find Adégòkè’s recent Q&A with Kayode here. When four Nigerian students accused of… Read More ›
novel
Review: A Community Forms, a Community Mourns: The Death of Vivek Oji
AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi. We’ve been a fan of Akwaeke Emezi’s writing since the pre-launch of their debut, Freshwater, at Africa Writes 2018; after that luminous novel and its YA successor, Pet, Emezi is back with what is perhaps 2020’s… Read More ›
Q&A: Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike interviews Ukamaka Olisakwe, author of “Ogadinma” (2020).
AiW Guest: Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike 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… Read More ›
In other Words… AiW news and July’s wrap
As we move through the changed circumstances, timelines and spaces of now, we catch up on our monthly round-up of ‘other words’ – news on AiW’s radar, collated from across our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please be in touch with… Read More ›
Event: Time of the Writer Festival, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (16–21 March)
23rd Time of the Writer Festival University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) 16 – 21 March 2020 The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts (CCA), in partnership with eThekwini Municipality, will host the 23rd Time of the Writer… 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 ›
Of Odyssean Saga and Romantic Tragedy – a review of Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities
AiW Guest Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè ‘You paid me evil for all I did for you…’ –An Orchestra of Minorities. ‘If the luminous intensity of Good did not give the night of Evil its blackness, Evil would lose its appeal.’ –Literature and… Read More ›
Call for papers: Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease at 60 (Deadline: 30 September)
Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease at 60 Northeast Modern Language Association Convention Massachusetts, USA 5-8 March 2020 As Chinua Achebe’s second novel, No Longer at Ease, first published in 1960, arrives at its 60th anniversary, scholars have an opportunity to… Read More ›
Call for applications: Writing Fellowships 2020
The Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS) invites applications for its Fifth Writing Semester, which will run from 3 February to 31 May 2020. Fellowships are open to any field of expertise. Previous fellows have included academics, novelists, scientists, poets,… Read More ›
Call for Submissions: ALA Book Awards (New Deadlines: 01 November)
The African Literature Association (ALA) has extended deadlines for its book prizes this year! Book of the Year Award—Scholarship (New Deadline: November 1, 2018) For an outstanding book in African literary studies published in the preceding calendar year (2017). Authors… Read More ›
Event: Small Country, Gaël Faye in conversation (27 October, New York)
Small Country by Albertine Books in French and English You are warmly invited to this event on 27th October with French-Rwandan author and rapper Gaël Faye discussing his award-winning novel, Small Country, just translated in English and out in U.S with… Read More ›
Event: Remembering Landeg White (8th October: SOAS, London)
The Centre of African Studies, SOAS, invites you to a remembrance to celebrate the life of Landeg White: Poet, Teacher, Scholar, Translator and Novelist At SOAS, in London, 8th October 2018 from 17.15 to 19.00 Landeg White was born in… Read More ›
“Chance, eloko pamba”: A review of In Koli Jean Bofane’s Congo Inc.: Bismarck’s Testament
AiW Guest: Connor Pruss Arjun Appadurai notably explained that globalization is marked by a new role for the imagination in social life in which the world may consist of regions (seen processually), but regions also imagine their own worlds. The… Read More ›
Online Event: Meja Mwangi in discussion, Global Read Webinar Series (17th May)
You are invited to join the Webinar discussion with Children’s Africana Book Award Winner Meja Mwangi, author of The Mzungu Boy Wednesday 17th May at 6.00-7.15pm (CST); 12.00-1.15am (GMT) Join the online Global Read Webinar Series discussion on Wednesday, May… Read More ›
Event: Peter Kimani in conversation (Waterstones, London, 14th March)
We are delighted to announce that Peter Kimani will be at Waterstones on Tottenham Court Road in London this coming Wednesday, 14th March, at 7pm. Peter Kimani Dance of the Jakaranda Peter Kimani is on a rare tour in the… Read More ›
Event: Dance of the Jakaranda (13th March, SOAS, London)
We are delighted to announce that Peter Kimani will be discussing his newest novel at SOAS, London, on Tuesday 13th March, 7.15 – 9pm. Peter Kimani will discuss his latest book Dance of the Jakaranda, published by Saqibooks, with Dr… Read More ›
The Problem with the Prophet: Review of Alain Mabanckou’s Black Moses
AiW Guest: Sarah Ahrens The first thing that struck me about the English translation of the latest novel of Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa’s arguably most successful living writer was its title: Black Moses is quite a departure from the original French… Read More ›
A Study in Contrast: A Review of Stanley Gazemba’s Forbidden Fruit
AiW Guest: Amanda Anderson Stanley Gazemba’s 2002 novel Forbidden Fruit, previously published in Kenya as The Stone Hills of Maragoli, presents a tightly woven tapestry of human experience. The narrative follows Ombima, a poor man from the small village of… Read More ›
Familiar, yet utterly new: A Review of Fred Strydom’s The Inside Out Man
AiW Guest: Kimmy Beach Bent is a gifted jazz pianist who plays in seedy nightclubs, lives in the “Crack Radisson”—a run-down flat in a Johannesburg suburb—and doesn’t seem to need much more in his life. With that deceptively… 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 ›