The Ugandan academic and gender and queer rights advocate Dr Stella Nyanzi has been awarded the 2020 Oxfam Novib/PEN International Award for Freedom of Expression, given annually to writers and journalists in recognition of their significant contribution to freedom of expression despite the danger to their own lives. The award ceremony was held as part […]
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It Is 50 Years Since Nigeria’s Biafran War: Here Are Books to Read
In July 1967, the then seven-year-old state of Nigeria went to war in its eastern region against the newly seceded state of Biafra, with a population mostly Igbo but also Ijaw, Efik, and Ibibio, among others. The 30-month conflict, which left up to two million civilians dead in the region, is the darkest moment for […]
Los Angeles Review of Books Feature Explores How Queer Nigerian Writers Are Reclaiming the Male Body
Los Angeles Review of Books has published a feature exploring how queer Nigerian writers are portraying the male body. Entitled “Queer Nigerians Rewrite the Body,” and written by the American journalist and World Literature Today contributing editor Erik Gleibermann, the essay highlights the push-back from a new generation of self-conscious artists against stereotypical narratives that […]
Historian & Filmmaker David Olusoga Is Making a Documentary on African Literature for BBC
The Nigerian-British historian and filmmaker David Olusoga is making a documentary on African literature for the BBC. The feature, which will be released in 2021, will focus on the works of, among others, Buchi Emecheta, Ayi Kwei Armah, Chinua Achebe, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Olusoga, who is Professor of Public History at the University of […]
Sierra Leonean-Ugandan Translator Yarri Kamara Receives 2020 PEN/Heim Fund Grant
The Sierra Leonean-Ugandan writer and translator Yarri Kamara has won the 2020 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant. Kamara, who lives in Burkina Faso, received it for her in-progress translation of the French-language novel Si loin de ma vie (So Distant From My Life) by the Burkinabe author Monique Ilboudo. The PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, an initiative […]
Professor Ato Quayson Is Explaining Postcolonial Literature
Ato Quayson, the Ghanaian literary critic and Professor of English at Stanford, has a new essay on The British Academy’s website. Entitled “What Is Postcolonial Literature?,” it opens up the academic concept and its nuances. Formerly Professor of English at New York University and University of Toronto, Professor Quayson is a Corresponding Fellow of the […]
Nairobi Noir, Edited by Peter Kimani & Featuring Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Stanley Gazemba, Troy Onyango, Makena Onjerika, Forthcoming in February 2020
Each anthology in Akashic Books’ noir series is “set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city” and includes new fiction by writers from the country. In 2018, there was Lagos Noir, edited by Chris Abani and featuring fellow Nigerians Chika Unigwe, Nnedi Okoroafor, E.C. Osondu, Sarah Ladipo Mayinka, and Jude Dibia, among […]
Stanley Gazemba on the Continental Publishing Gap Since the African Writers Series
The question of the hurdles in African publishing has been a long-discussed one. In a new piece for The Elephant, Kenyan author Stanley Gazemba, winner of the Jomo Kenyatta Prize, has lent his voice. Entitled “African Publishing Minefields and the Woes of the African Writer,” the piece is a brief outline of publishing in the […]
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