“Groundnuts!” she called. “Buy your groundnuts!” The black hijab that covered her head and shoulders was stained with dust and sweat. What could be seen of her simple blouse and wrapper were faded and threadbare. She easily balanced a tray heaped full of nuts on her head as she wove through the market crowd. […]
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Tosin Kolawole is Inspired By Anything and Everything | Interviewed by Caleb Adebayo
Samuel Kolawole is a 2014 fiction fellow at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, USA. He has contributed short fiction to various journals and anthologies.His collection of short stories, The Book of M was published in 2011 to critical acclaim. He is the founder and Director of Writers’ Studio, Nigeria’s flagship creative writing school, which is […]
Adichie Pokes Fun At African Fashion Lingo and Writing Style
You know Ifemelu, right? The principal character in Adichie’s hit novel, Americanah. A few weeks ago, I brought you news {HERE} that Ifemelu’s blog—loved by readers of Americanah— has come to life in a worpress blog titled The Small Redemptions of Lagos. The posts are written by Adichie-writing-as-Ifemelu. You should check it out. It’s like […]
Ikhide Versus Binyavanga: The Caine Prize Convo—Cainerversation—Continues
I’m loving this back-and-forth taking place on social media over Wainaina Binyavanga’s spiky tweets about the Caine Prize. Not necessarily because of the drama—even though Binyavanga’s irreverent tweets are endlessly entertaining. What I love is how controversies like these stage opportunities for open and honest dialogue about the things that matter to us all in the community. Over […]
Warsan Shire’s Tenure as London’s Young Poet Laureate Comes to a Sweet End
A year ago, we reported the appointment of Warsan Shire as London’s first ever young poet laureate. Well, a whole year has now passed and her tenure has come to an end. According to BBC news, she had a memorable “year of residences ranging from the Houses of Parliament to beauty salons…as well as the creation […]
Teju Cole Satirizes American Cable News At Its Worst! | Ebola Is The Ku Klux Klan of Paper Cuts
“Ebola: The Isis of Biological Agents?” The problem with this question asked on CNN last week goes beyond cheap sensationalism. It’s flat out stupid. But that didn’t stop CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield from posing it and also asking: “Does that mean that [Ebola] is that deadly, that dangerous or just that it needs to be […]
Drama Alert | “Shine Your Fucking Eyes” | Read Binyavanga’s “Dear Caine Prize” Rant
I woke up this morning, dutifully writing a blogpost about the Nobel Prize when I received a message from a friend about some major drama taking place on Wainaina Binyavanga’s twitter feed. I hurried off to Twitter and saw a string of angry tweets criticizing The Caine Prize for African Fiction. Here is how I understand his concerns: […]
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