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Features, Stories and Poems, Submission 2019/01/19

Clickbait | Saddiq Dzukogi | Poetry

Inspired by the Western media coverage of the Dusit Hotel terror attack in Nairobi.   At the Dusit restaurant in Nairobi men slumped over tables, crowded   with laptops and smashed plates, dead from gunshot wounds.   This is now where your hands pick what eyes consume. Our dead   displayed like a commodity. A […]

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Features, Stories and Poems 2018/12/14

Erotic Africa: The Sex Anthology | Read e-Book Exploring Millennial Sex Culture and Romance in African Cities

Much has been said about the state of sex in African literature: whether African novelists are keen on sex, why writers approach sex the way they do, and we even ran a brief series, “Sex in African Novels.” The call for submissions for Erotic Africa: The Sex Anthology even prompted notes on how to write erotica. […]

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Features, Lit Scene, Nonfiction, Stories and Poems, Submission 2018/12/10

At the Purple Hibiscus Trust Workshop | Clementine Ewokolo-Burnley

There is water everywhere, a skyline, tall buildings, twinkling lights, pleasure craft behind locked gates. Leaning back in the taxi, I relax. I’m in Lagos, on my way to the Purple Hibiscus Trust Workshop. Twenty-two writers, ten days, reading, writing, critiques, eating, arguing, bonding. The email on November 7, which started with “Dear Clementine” and […]

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Features, Stories and Poems 2018/11/29

Excerpt #4 | My Sister, the Serial Killer | by Oyinkan Braithwaite

FLAW   “So, you people share the same father and mother?” “She told you she is my sister.” “But is she your full sister? She looks kinda mixed.” Yinka is really starting to piss me off. The sad thing is that her questions are neither the most obnoxious I have received in my lifetime nor […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News, Stories and Poems, Submission 2018/11/28

20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry | New Project Pushes Institutional Boundaries in the Modern African Poetry Landscape

From prizes, publishing houses and festivals to magazines, journals, writers’ development initiatives, grants and blogs, the contemporary literary scene in Africa is, like those in Europe and in the Americas, reliant on institutions willing to push existing boundaries. While the institutions are doing important work, there aren’t many of them as there should be, and collective […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News, Stories and Poems 2018/11/25

Introduction to 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry | Safia Elhillo & Gbenga Adesina

The poems we have curated in this anthology are electric, unruly, charged with desire and melancholies. They are intensely private yet quite magically find a way to be communal. There is a borderlessnes to the poems, not just of geographies and identities but also of sensibility, syntax, style, subversion of the white space and awakening […]

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Features, Stories and Poems 2018/11/22

Excerpt #3 | My Sister, The Serial Killer | by Oyinkan Braithwaite

RED   Yinka is painting her nails at the reception desk. Bunmi sees me coming and nudges her, but it is a pointless warning—Yinka will not stop on my account. She acknowledges my presence with a feline smile. “Korede, those shoes are nice o!” “Thanks.” “The original must be very expensive.” Bunmi chokes on the […]

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Contact Us, Features, Interviews, Kafka's Bestiary, Lit Scene, News, Reviews, Series, Stories and Poems 2018/11/19

The 2018 Brittle Paper Awards: The Winners

The Brittle Paper Awards is our way of recognizing the finest, original pieces of literature by Africans available online for free. We began it in 2017 to mark our seventh anniversary. The $1,100 cash prize is spread across five categories which reflect our efforts to capture the range and variations of literary dialogue on the continent: the Brittle Paper Award […]

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Features 2019/02/18

GoFundMe | Donate to Help Egyptian Writer and Feminist Icon Nawal El Saadawi Undergo Medical Care

nawal el saadawi - moroccan ladies - graph

The Egyptian writer and feminist icon Nawal El Sadaawi is ill. To foot her medical bills, a GoFundMe appeal was […]

Features 2019/02/18

Every Poem Needs Time to Breathe and Become | Interview with Echezonachukwu Nduka

Echezonachukwu Nduka (6)

  Echezonachukwu Nduka is a Nigerian poet, classical pianist, and musicologist. His poems have appeared in several publications including Saraba, […]

Features 2019/02/18

Writing and the Burden of Public Grief: In Conversation with Hawa Jande Golakai, Winner of the 2017 Brittle Paper Award for Creative Nonfiction

hawa jande golakai - authors in africa - graph

Hawa Jande Golakai was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and spent her childhood in her homeland of Liberia, later living in […]

Features 2019/02/18

How to Be a Nigerian Writer: Excerpt from Elnathan John’s Be(com)ing Nigerian: A Guide 

elnathan becoming nigerian graph

On February 6, Cassava Republic Press published Elnathan John’s Be(com)ing Nigerian: A Guide in Nigeria. Portraying “the different Nigerians you are likely […]

Features 2019/02/18

Catalyst Press Books Gears Up for North America Releases of Peter Church’s Crackerjack and Yewande Omotoso’s Bom Boy 

yewande omotoso bom boy - catalyst press

On February 26, US-based publisher Catalyst Press Books will be releasing North America editions of the South African novelist Peter […]

Features 2019/02/15

PHOTOS | The Asmara Addis Literary Festival in Exile: a Pan-African Event for Feminism, Free Love, and Radical Ideas

Asmara Addis Literray Festival in Exile (18)

The inaugural Asmara Addis Literary Festival in Exile was held from 8–10 February 2019, in Brussels, Belgium. Founded by Eritrean-Ethiopian novelist […]

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