Michigan Quarterly Review’s African Writing Issue Features a Star-Studded Cast!

April 19, 2024

Michigan Quarterly Review‘s latest issue is the African Writing Issue and it features a star-studded cast of writers from all over Africa including Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Togo, South Africa, Kenya, Libya, Zambia, and more. See if you can spot some familiar names below!

Founded in 1962, Michigan Quarterly Review is the University of Michigan’s flagship literary journal, publishing each season a collection of essays, interviews, memoirs, fiction, poetry, and book reviews.

Guest edited by Nigerian author Chris Abani, the Spring 2024 special issue is titled “African Writing: A Partial Cartography of Provocations”. The cover is absolutely stunning and depicts a Black woman with an illustration of a dancing figure in her hair.

This latest issue features poetry by Kwame Dawes, Saddiq Dzukogi, Dalia Elhassan, Omotara James, and Matthew Shenoda; nonfiction by Faith Adiele, Chiké Frankie Edozien, and Emelda Nyaradzai Gwitimah; fiction by Heran Abate, Leye Adenle, and Chika Unigwe; newly translated work by Fairuz al-Okley, Nana Asma’u, Patron Henekou, Tom Olali, Amira-Géhanne Khalfallah, Amal Sewtohul; cover art by Victor Ehikhamenor; and much more!

We are thrilled with the extensive representation of African writing in Michigan Quarterly Review’s newest issue. Check out the full table of contents below:

Poetry

.CHISARAOKWU. | Mmiri; Mmiri II; Wade; Mmiri III; from Liminal Spaces, 2023
Fairuz al-Okley, trans. Khaled Mattawa | My Whole Life Is Wrapped around My Waist
Afua Ansong | Armor of Light; Light in Exile; [Stay Alone with the Body]
Nana Asma’u, trans. Mary-Alice Daniel | Begging for Rain; Certain Truth
Ìfẹ́olúwa Àyàndélé | The Fog is the Ghost of My Grandfather
Kwame Dawes | Walk ‘Bout; Stations of My Cross 1
Saddiq Dzukogi | Bakandamiya XI.; Bakandamiya IX.; Bakandamiya
Dalia Elhassan | On Sudan National TV, A Woman Appears in Darfur; The Khartoum School
Rasaq Malik Gbolahan | Rest in Peace, Beloveds (II)
Isra Hassan | Archetype: The Scapegoat
Patron Henekou, trans. Patron Henekou and Connie Voisine | The Alphabet, A Poem for a Child in a Painting, Lincoln at the End of the Runway
Omotara James | My Mother Is Already Mourning the First Black Person to Be Lynched in Space; Erasure in Tongues
Gabriel Awuah Mainoo | Reclamation; The Season & The Throat
Hana Meron | Abugidarian in Addis Ababa; Wax & Gold
Elizabeth Mudenyo | Mom Makes Time
Migwi Mwangi | Echoes of Sula in a Moi Avenue Salon; In Search of Wa Muthoni’s Garden
Sharon Neema | Here (1º 00′ N and 38º 00′ E)
Tolu Ogunlesi | Skymachine; Scenes: Go-Slow, Kara Bridge, Saturday Afternoon
Georgio Russell | Immigrana
Shahilla Shariff | Aria; Exile; Homecoming
Matthew Shenoda | Capitalism’s Migration
Jasmine Tabor | Black Things, A Series

Fiction

Heran Abate | Hager Fikir | ሐገር ፍቅር
Leye Adenle | The House of Oluawo
Amira-Géhanne Khalfallah, trans. Amira-Géhanne Khalfallah and Jennifer Grotz | The Last Voyage of Ibn Battûta
Tom Olali, trans. Richard Prins | The People of Gehenna
Amal Sewtohul, trans. Nadiyah Abdullatif and Thomas Feige | Service to Mauritius
Chika Unigwe | Miracle in Lagos Traffic