Kwame Dawes recently wrote a poem titled “Yard Boy” that speaks to the recent events surrounding the death of George Floyd. The poem was published “in the spirit of protest and concern” on the website of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Department of English, where Dawes holds the position of Chancellor’s Professor of English and is […]
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Petina Gappah to Write Play About the Censorship History of Dambudzo Marechera’s Novel Black Sunlight
Petina Gappah recently announced that she was writing a play that focuses on “the 1982 banning and unbanning” of Dambudzo Marechera’s novel, Black Sunlight. The play, also titled Black Sunlight, will explore the themes of “censorship, writing, and the nature of creativity” and will be framed through “a Mozart/Salieri style rivalry.” My play examines censorship, writing […]
Petina Gappah’s Out of Darkness, Shining Light Wins the 2020 Chautauqua Prize
Petina Gappah’s Out of Darkness, Shining Light is the winner of the 2020 Chautauqua Prize. The Chautauqua Prize has been awarded each year since 2012 to “a book of fiction or literary/narrative nonfiction that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts.” The Chautauqua Institution is […]
Chimamanda Adichie Shares the Ins-and-Outs of Writing Half of A Yellow Sun for Biafra Remembrance Day
It’s Biafra Remembrance Day, and while many authors have written about the Biafra War, perhaps no other book on the subject has captured the world’s attention as much as Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. To mark the occasion this year, Adichie released a short video on her Instagram TV channel responding to questions […]
Teju Cole’s Essay on The Disposability of Black Lives is Essential Reading for Our Current Moment
As we mourn the death of George Floyd, whose life was brutally taken by a white police officer in Minneapolis, let us reflect on something Teju Cole wrote a few days after another black man, Michael Brown, was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, back in 2014. The piece, titled “Black Body: Rereading James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in […]
#WeTurnToBooks Returns! Catch Nnedi Okorafor, Kiru Taye, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, & Ayesha Harruna Attah Live on Instagram
Hey Brittle Paper readers and followers! We’re excited to announce the second installment of our #WeTurnToBooks series on Instagram Live, happening throughout the month of June. Our line-up this time around includes Nnedi Okorafor, Kiru Taye, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, and Ayesha Harruna Attah — all authors who have recently published a new book, or have […]
All the Scoop on Fiston Mujila’s Forthcoming Novel The Villain’s Dance
Fiston Mujila’s second novel is set for a September 2020 release by France-based publishing powerhouse Éditions Métailié. It has been six years since the break out success of Mujila’s award-wining debut Tram 83, so this is great news for fans. Titled La Danse du Vilain (The Villain’s Dance), the novel captures aspects of life during […]
Bakwa Books Acquires English Translation Rights for Hemley Boum’s Recent Novel
Bakwa Books has acquired the English translation rights to Les Jours Viennent et Passent, a novel by Cameroonian writer Hemley Boum. Dzekashu MacViban, founding editor of Bakwa Magazine and Bakwa Books, announced that Bakwa will publish and distribute the English translation of the book in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2022. In Les Jours Viennent et Passent, three […]
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