AiW Guests: Nduka Otiono and Uche Peter Umezurike. AiW note: by way of introduction to our Guest post here, we are very pleased to be able to share with the editors news of the African release of Wreaths for a… Read More ›
Poetry
Q&A with Writer and Publisher Nii Ayikwei Parkes: ‘The thing about any book, anything that’s written, is that it’s the start of a conversation, it’s never the end’
AiW Guests: Lottie McGrath, Charlie Renwick, Eloise Percy-Davis and Tilly Everard. Nii Ayikwei Parkes is an acclaimed British-Ghanaian poet, writer, and publisher. Winner of multiple international awards, Parkes’ work ranges from the reinvention of accounts of slavery with sci-fi undertones… Read More ›
Q&A: Words on the Times– Nick Mulgrew, founder & director of uHlanga Press
AiW note: To celebrate the past thirty years of independent distributing and bookselling at African Books Collective (ABC), we are running a series highlighting the wonderful work of those who make up ABC. We will be talking to some of… 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 ›
Creative Times “in the making”: unfolding the Keiskamma COVID-19 Tapestry of Resilience
AiW note: Posts over 5 days this week, have introduced the epic endeavour of the Keiskamma COVID-19 Resilience Tapestry being made by the Keiskamma Art Project in the rural hamlet of Hamburg, South Africa, through the place, the people –… Read More ›
Q&A: Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike with Prof. Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi
AiW Guest: Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike. Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature in the Department of English at North Carolina State University. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in African literature, postcolonial literary and cultural studies,… Read More ›
Q&A: “No matter what, art and creativity can still shine through”: Words on the Times with Poda-Poda Stories’s Ngozi Cole
Poda-Poda Stories is a digital platform and literary journal that gathers rich stories from Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leonean diaspora, founded by Ngozi Cole in 2019. The name “Poda-Poda Stories” comes from Cole’s high school days where she travelled… Read More ›
Review: Physicality and Distortion in Dolla Sapeta’s ‘Skeptical Erections’
Mxolisi Dolla Sapeta is perhaps best known for his work as an artist and sculptor. In 2019, he made his literary debut with his first collection of poems, Skeptical Erections, published by Deep South. Reading Skeptical Erections makes it quickly… 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 ›
Review: A Sojourner’s Tale – Kola Tubosun’s ‘Edwardsville by Heart’
AiW Guest: Tade Ipadeola. “Light tornado alert tonight at Edwardsville. Stay indoors please, when you hear storm alerts!” a text said. ‘Tornado’, p.33 We look out for the traveler’s tale especially. They bear that extra flavour of the road not… Read More ›
2013 Africa Writes #P&P – Q&A: Poet, writer and educator Warsan Shire
AiW Note: this republication of a 2013 in-depth (long) and rich (vibrantly so) conversation between poet and activist Warsan Shire and Katie Reid of AiW marks the first post in our second day of Africa Writes #Past&Present revisits over this… Read More ›
“I wish for my poems and music to do away with things I’m sure about. I wish for them to undo me, to unmake me”: Q&A with Petero Kalulé.
AiW Guest: Esther Mirembe. Petero Kalulé is a composer, poet, and multi-instrumentalist. Their music can be bought and listened to via Bandcamp, and their collection of poems Kalimba was published by Guillemot Press in May 2019 – you can buy… Read More ›
Q&A: Words on the Times – Jumoke Verissimo
“A Small Silence feels like an act of literary disruption. Hypnotic, expertly crafted and full of subtle power, it challenges cultural norms around silence, darkness and solitude, leaving the reader changed in ways that are hard to define.” Irenosen Okojie, Guardian… Read More ›
“A Thousand Tentative Tendrils”: Review of The Only Magic We Know: Selected Modjaji Poems 2004 to 2019
AiW Guest: Susanna Sacks. AiW note: This review is the fourth, and last, in a series of posts on the release of two anniversary collections from feminist indy press Modjaji Books – the short story anthology published last year, Fool’s Gold: Selected… Read More ›
Call for Submissions: Wasafiri New Writing Prize (Deadline: 15 June)
One of the many impacts of COVID-19 has been on writers’ schedules and headspace. Wasafiri– a dynamic platform for mapping new landscapes in contemporary international writing – is acknowledging this by extending the deadline for their new writing prize. The… Read More ›
Q&A: Deep South’s Robert Berold on Poetry and Publishing in South Africa
Robert Berold is a South African poet and editor, author of four books of poetry and four books of non-fiction. Between 1989 and 1999 he edited the poetry journal New Coin and went on to edit a selection of New… Read More ›
In other Words… AiW news and April’s wrap
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 ›
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 ›
Event: TJ Dema at Lyra, Bristol Poetry Festival, UK (22 March)
TJ Dema, recent winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry, will be at this year’s Lyra Festival, Bristol’s poetry festival on 22nd March. In a session titled Habitat: An Eco-Poetry Workshop, TJ Dema will lead an engaging… 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 ›
