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Binyavanga Wainaina is back!

Okay, not that he’s been absent. He has made excellent use of social media as a platform for sharing his signature provocations on African literature, culture and politics.

But it’s been exactly 3 years since his last book, One Day I Will Write About This Place. And while we love Binyavanga’s Tweets and Facebook posts, we’ve been hankering for a book. So imagine how thrilled we are to learn that we are getting not one but two books.

The news came out a few of days ago on The Book Seller. Under the representation of Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency, Binyavanga signed over the UK/Commonwealth rights of two non-fiction works to Hamish Hamilton, a Penguin Books imprint while the US rights went to Random House.

The first book, titled How to Write About Africa, is, of course, an expanded version of the short satirical piece by the same name, which went viral a few years ago and shot the Kenyan writer to global recognition. It is scheduled for a 2017 release.

The second book, which won’t come out until 2019, is titled It is only a Matter of Acceleration Now. According to The Book Seller, the book is “based on travels and interviews across Africa, aspiring to change readers’ perceptions of Africa in the way V.S. Naipaul’s India: A Million Mutinies Now did with India.”

Simon Prosser, a Hamish Hamilton executive, has this to say about the books:

“Binyavanga Wainaina’s unique position – as both a brilliant, highly original writer and a fearlessly engaged thinker on Africa today —  ensures that these will be equally unique, inspiring and groundbreaking books. I couldn’t be more excited and proud to help them to reach the widest readership they can.”

We couldn’t agree more. Congrats to Binyavanga!

 

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Image by Okay Africa via Instagram