AiW note: Justin Cox is the CEO of African Books Collective (ABC). ABC is an African owned, worldwide marketing and distribution outlet publishing books from Africa. It began trading in 1989 as a self-help initiative by a group of seventeen… Read More ›
Publishers
Event: Black Book Festival (14 March, London)
The Black Book Festival London Saturday 14 March, 2020 11am-7pm The Black Book Festival is a celebration and showcase of African-Caribbean writing and global Black writing in general. This is an event that presents the work of old and new… Read More ›
Call for Applications: African Writers Trust Publishing Fellowship Programme (Deadline: 16 February)
2nd Edition: African Writers Trust Publishing Fellowship Programme 08 – 14 March 2020 Uganda The African Writers Trust Publishing Fellowship programme is open to early career publishers and creative writers intending to self-publish their manuscripts. Applicants will be selected from… Read More ›
Call for Submissions: Inaugural Toyin Fálọlá Prize (2020)
We are delighted to share that the inaugural Toyin Fálọlá Prize has been announced by the team at LUNARIS. Submissions will open 01 January 2020 and will close again on 15 April 2020. The Prize has been created in honour… Read More ›
Event: Abantu Book Festival (South Africa, 05-08 December)
The fourth Abantu Book Festival 05 – 08 December At Eyethu Lifestyle Centre, Mofolo & Soweto Theatre in Jabulani South Africa The Abantu Book Festival was founded in 2016 by a team led by Thando Mgqolozana for all people/ abantu… Read More ›
Call for Papers: ‘Colonial and Postcolonial Print Mobilities’ workshop (Deadline: 16 January 2020)
‘Colonial and Postcolonial Print Mobilities: Black Periodicals and Local Publications, 1880-present’ A Workshop at Newcastle University, 10-12 June 2020 The workshop at Newcastle University, UK will explore local and global networks of circulation for literary and political writing produced by black authors,… Read More ›
Call for submissions: Wole Soyinka Prize 2019 (Deadline: 31 May)
We are pleased to share The Lumina Foundation, sole administrator of Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, has announced the call for entry for the 2019 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. About the Prize The Wole Soyinka… Read More ›
Call for participants: Academic Writing Workshop, Hargeysa International Book Fair (Deadline: 20 May)
Hargeysa International Book Fair Academic Writing Workshop African Literature and Cultural Production in the 21st Century 15-18 July 2019 The Hargeysa International Book Fair, in collaboration with the journal Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies and the Universities of Bristol… Read More ›
Save the Date: International Publishers Association Africa Seminar (June 14-15, Nairobi)
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Petina Gappah are two of the many delegates set to attend the International Publishers Association Africa Seminar in Nairobi from June 14-15, 2019. The seminar will take place at Movenpick Hotel in Nairobi, and the theme… Read More ›
Save the date: The Uganda International Writers Conference, Kampala (15-17 May)
The 4th Uganda International Writers Conference 2019 Kampala, Uganda May 15-17, 2019. The fourth edition of the conference has a particular focus on the theme: The Right to Write in a Global Context. Just like previous years, you can expect… Read More ›
Call for applications: Associate Reviews Editor for Africa in Words. Closing date – 31 July 2018.
Africa in Words is recruiting volunteers to join our small, tight-knit and entirely voluntary team. We are recruiting for our Reviews section, with the potential for multiple Associate Editorial positions.
The Valentine’s Day Anthology: a snapshot of the possibilities and challenges of African publishing
February 14th 2015 marked the publication of the Valentine’s Day Anthology, a collection of short romance stories by seven leading African authors, translated and recorded in different African languages and published by Ankara Press. AiW author Emma Shercliff reflects here… Read More ›
Q&A: Colleen Higgs – publisher Modjaji Books
Colleen Higgs is the publisher and passionate, dynamic force behind Modjaji Books, a small independent press based in Cape Town, South Africa. Inspired by Modjadji, the Rain Queen of Limpopo, a powerful female force for good, growth, new life, and… Read More ›
The Small Publishers’ Catalogue 2013
This year sees the new edition of Modjaji Books’ Small Publishers’ Catalogue, which updates the first edition of 2010. Publishing Perspectives have called this one ‘a beauty’, and indeed it is, in concept and design. The print copy is, again, a lovely size, great… Read More ›
The Book in Africa: A Day Symposium
AiW Guest Ruth Bush This lively one day event took place in London at Senate House on 20 October 2012, was led by Dr Caroline Davis (Oxford Brookes) and brought together a number of researchers working in the broad area of… Read More ›
Genre and the New Geographies of World Literature: A look at Jungle Jim’s “South African Sci-Fi” issue
AiW Guest Stephanie Bosch Santana. The cover of Jungle Jim issue no. 16, the magazine’s “South African Sci-fi” edition, depicts Zulu warriors casting tiny, toothpick-like spears at the Goliath of an alien bearing down on them. Styled after the pulp magazines… Read More ›
From Roswell to Rosebank – South African SF and Jungle Jim
AiW Guest Graham Riach. On the front cover of issue 16 of Jungle Jim,a starry sky hangs low over two Zulu tribesmen, assegais held high behind their shields. Looming towards them is a muscle-bound giant with an insectoid robotic head,… Read More ›
‘Without warning, everything became possible’: pulp fiction and the rise of Jungle Jim
AiW Guest Alexander Howard. 1. As the author and editor Jenna Bass points out in the first instalment of her recent interview with Katie Reid of Africa in Words, the bi-monthly fiction magazine Jungle Jim arose out of a shared desire… Read More ›
Jim in the Urban Jungle – South African print culture and Jungle Jim
AiW Guest Ed Charlton. As an intervention into the formal space of South African print culture, Jungle Jim is certainly daring and distinctive. If not an entirely unique mode of literary production, its pulp ’zine format is, nonetheless, a marked… Read More ›
African Book Festival, London, 26th-27th October 2012
AiW Guest Kate Nkanza. When I first heard about the African Book Festival, I was so excited that I paid for my pass for two days straight away.