Head of Zeus, a UK-based publishing house part of Bloomsbury Publishing, will republish 100 titles from the historic Heinemann African Writers Series under a rebranded imprint called Apollo Africa list. The launch of Apollo Africa will take place this October all the way until March 2024.

Apollo Africa is a collaboration between Head of Zeus, Black Star Books, and Pearson Education Ltd. Launched in 1962 with Chinua Achebe as an editorial advisor, the Heinemann series aimed to make African writing available to a wide readership within Africa and internationally. It began with the publication of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and continued to publish African authors until 2003. Apollo Africa will continue this important legacy, featuring authors from 26 African countries.

Apollo Africa’s editorial advisory board includes literary agent Nelle Andrew, publishing consultant Nancy Adimora, author Noo Saro-Wiwa, and cultural consultant Dean Ricketts. Adimora remarked:

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the African Writers Series. In many ways, it is what led me to start my career in publishing, so working on this project feels like a full circle moment. As an editorial board, we’re committed to ensuring that these titles are thoughtfully repackaged and reintroduced to the broadest possible audience, and I’m particularly looking forward to helping the team identify and platform new writers and stories from across the African continent and diaspora.

The first 14 Apollo Africa titles will be launched in October 2023, Black History Month. They include:

  1. Ama Ata Aidoo’s No Sweetness Here
  2. Bessie Head’s The Lovers
  3. Buchi Emecheta’s The New Tribe
  4. Charles Mungoshi’s Waiting for the Rain
  5. Cyprian Ekwensi’s Burning Grass
  6. Jamal Mahjoub’s Wings of Dust
  7. Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Sozaboy
  8. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Homecoming
  9. Rebeka Njau’s Ripples in the Pool
  10. Shimmer Chinodya’s Harvest of Thorns
  11. Wole Soyinka’s The Interpreters
  12. Naguib Mahfouz’s The Children of Gebelawi
  13. Alex La Guma’s A Walk in the Night
  14. Flora Nwapa’s Efuru

All 100 titles will be digitally available by March 2024. Titles from the list will be selected for trade release from spring 2024 onwards.

We are thrilled about this groundbreaking series celebrating the work of African authors and cannot wait to see which new voices are added to the project!