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 ›
Poetry
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 ›
Q&A: ‘Law is an extension of Literature’, says Kyomuhendo Ateenyi, the Ugandan poet exiled in the law.
Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire writes: I first came to know Kyomuhendo Ateenyi from his literary, epistolary and blogging practice at Makerere University. His poetry and political commentary published on university notice boards and a variety of blog platforms provided the metaphor… Read More ›
Q&A: Uche Peter Umez interviews poet Niran Okewole
AiW Guest: Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike Niran Okewole is the author of the widely-acclaimed Logarhythms. His poems have won the MUSON Festival Poetry Prizes in 2002 and 2003, and the Sawubona Music Jam/Berlin International Poetry Festival Prize in 2008. The Hate Artist is his latest… Read More ›
Q&A: Safia Elhillo on her Sillerman Prize-winning collection January Children
Sudanese by way of Washington, DC, a Cave Canem fellow and poetry editor at Kinfolks Quarterly: a journal of black expression, Safia Elhillo received an MFA in poetry at the New School. Safia is a Pushcart Prize nominee, co-winner of… Read More ›
Event: Aké Arts and Book Festival, 15-19 November 2016, Abeokuta
AKE FESTIVAL IN 2016 NGUGI WA THIONG’O TO HEADLINE AKE FESTIVAL IN 2016 Abeokuta, Ogun State will stand still once again as it hosts an outstanding roster of writers, thinkers, artists, filmmakers, musicians, book lovers and art enthusiasts at the fourth… Read More ›
Q&A: Uche Peter Umez interviews poet Obiwu
AiW Guest: Uche Peter Umez ‘Poetry is sometimes the only glimmer of hope in the darkest corners and most difficult conditions of life.’ – Obiwu Obiwu teaches English in the Department of Humanities, Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio, United States…. Read More ›
Eric 1Key’s Entre 2: Gene Aise, 1Key’s life story
AiW Guest: Ceri Whatley AiW Note: This is the final post in a series of four posts in which Ceri Whatley discusses Rwandan artist Eric 1Key’s album Entre 2, as well as presenting original translations of 1Key’s lyrics from Kiswahili and French to… Read More ›
Eric 1Key’s Entre 2: a ‘story about a hero and a coward’
AiW Guest: Ceri Whatley AiW Note: This is the third in a series of four posts in which Ceri Whatley discusses Rwandan artist Eric 1Key’s album Entre 2, as well as presenting original translations of 1Key’s lyrics from Kinyarwanda and French… Read More ›
Eric 1Key’s Entre 2 -Virtually Yours, an ‘online love story’
AiW Guest: Ceri Whatley AiW Note: This is the second in a series of four posts in which Ceri Whatley discusses Rwandan artist Eric 1Key’s album Entre 2, as well as presenting original translations of 1Key’s lyrics from Kinyarwanda and French to English. We are… Read More ›
Rwandan hip-hop poet Eric 1Key: Entre 2
AiW Guest: Ceri Whatley AiW Note: This is the first in a series of four posts in which Ceri Whatley discusses Rwandan artist Eric 1Key’s album Entre 2, as well as presenting original translations of 1Key’s lyrics from Kinyarwanda and French to English. We… Read More ›
A Review of Inua Ellams’ The Wire-Headed Heathen
AiW Guest: Jason Allen This month, Jason Allen continues our deep dive into Eight New Generation African Poets with a review of Inua Ellams’ The Wire-Headed Heathen. This is the third chapbook by Nigerian-British performance poet Inua Ellams. The poems display his… Read More ›
Call for Submissions: Wasafiri New Writing Prize, Deadline 15 July 2016
The 2016 Wasafiri New Writing Prize is now open! Submissions are welcome in three categories: Poetry, Fiction and Life Writing. Ensure that you submit your entry/entries by the deadline: 5pm BST on 15 July 2016. Winners will receive £300 and… Read More ›
Review: Best “New” African Poets 2015 Anthology
AiW Guest: Rashi Rohatgi Best “New” African Poets 2015 Anthology Anthologie Des Meilleures “Nouveaux” Poètes Africains 2015 Antologia Dos Melhores “Novos” Poetas Africanos 2015 “We couldn’t give poets topics because we are not Africa. We didn’t want to determine what Africa… Read More ›
Review: Things We Lost in the Fire by Vuyelwa Maluleke
AiW Guest: Toni Stuart Vuyelwa Maluleke’s Things We Lost in the Fire is a meditation on all that still lies broken within and between South Africans. It is at once a meditation on the woundedness of South Africa’s black men, and,… Read More ›
Q&A with Toni Stuart: Poetry gives people the power to make their voices heard
AiW Guest: Matthew Lecznar Toni Stuart is a South African poet, performer and spoken word educator, who presently works between Cape Town and London. Her work has been published in anthologies, journals and non-fiction books in South Africa and internationally. In 2013,… Read More ›
Q&A: Justice is merely a feeling – Peter Kagayi
AiW Author: Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire Peter Kagayi is a Ugandan poet and lawyer. Recently announced as Anglophone coordinator at Writivism, he has taught Literature in various secondary schools in Uganda and was President of the Lantern Meet of Poets until recently. He curates… Read More ›
Q&A: Law is a form of literature – Busingye Kabumba
AiW Author: Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire Dr. Busingye Kabumba teaches Human Rights and International Law at Makerere and other universities. Educated at the University of Pretoria, Harvard, Oxford and Makerere, Busingye is also a partner at Development Law Associates, a legal consulting… Read More ›
Telling the African Story: A Review of Janet Kofi-Tsekpo’s Yellow Iris
AiW Guest: Jovia Salifu This month, Jovia Salifu continues our deep dive into Eight New Generation African Poets. As a lover of poetry, it is always a wonderful feeling to come across beautiful poetry. It is even more exciting when… Read More ›
Memory and the Cartography of Dismembered Parts: A Review of Peter Akinlabi’s A Pagan Place
AiW Guest: Iquo DianaAbasi Eke. This month, AiW Guest, poet Iquo DianaAbasi Eke, continues our deep dive in The Eight New Generation African Poets with her review of Peter Akinlabi’s A Pagan Place. In this collection, Akinlabi comes across as an… Read More ›