The Angolan musician and author Kalaf Epalanga, who looks like the actor Mahershala Ali, has been announced as the curator of the 2020 African Book Festival in Berlin. The inaugural event in 2018, themed “Writing in Migration,” was curated by the Nigerian novelist Olumide Popoola. The 2019 event, themed “Transitioning from Migration” and headlined by […]
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Kalaf Epalanga, Angolan Author & Musician, Named Curator of the 2020 African Book Festival in Berlin
Addis Ababa Noir, Edited by Maaza Mengiste & Featuring Mahtem Shiferraw, Sulaiman Addonia, Linda Yohannes, Meron Hadero, Hannah Giorgis, Forthcoming in April 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. Last year, the series published Lagos Noir, for Nigeria, edited by Chris Abani and featuring work by Nnedi Okorafor, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, E.C. Osondu, Jude Dibia, Chika […]
Unoma Azuah’s Embracing My Shadow, Nigeria’s First Memoir About Being Lesbian, Forthcoming in March 2020 & Now Available for Pre-order
Unoma Azuah, novelist, poet, academic, curator, and one of Nigeria’s leading LGBTQ rights activists, has a new book, her third, coming on 1 March 2020: her debut memoir, to be published by Beaten Track. Titled Embracing My Shadow: Growing Up Lesbian in Nigeria, it will be Nigeria’s first memoir about being lesbian. Embracing My Shadow […]
Laila Lalami, Scholastique Mukasonga, & Akwaeke Emezi Are Finalists for the 2019 National Book Awards
Moroccan American novelist Laila Lalami, Rwandan novelist Scholastique Mukasonga, and Nigerian novelist Akwaeke Emezi are finalists for the 2019 National Book Awards in the US. The 25 shortlisted books and authors fall under five categories: Young People’s Literature, Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, and Translated Literature. Lalami is nominated in the Fiction category for her fourth novel […]
Opening Speech at the 2019 International Literature Festival | Petina Gappah
Petina Gappah is the author of the short story collections An Elegy for Easterly and Rotten Row, and of the novels The Book of Memory and Out of Darkness, Shining Light. The following is an excerpt from her opening speech at the International Literature Festival in Berlin, delivered on 11 September 2019. I Across the […]
Nobel Prize in Literature: Ngugi wa Thiong’o Is Bookies’ 4th Favourite for One of 2019’s Two Awards
It has been a tradition, since the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, for literary people to wonder when it should be Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s turn. And this year, the perennial favourite is, once again, a favourite. And the twist of 2019—the Swedish Academy’s announcement that it will be giving […]
Submit to the Young African Poets Anthology, Guest-edited by Itiola Jones & Nome Patrick Emeka
The Young African Poets Anthology is a project by the Nigerian writers Ernest Ogunyemi and Fiyinfoluwa Timothy Oladipo, for poets between the ages of 15 and 19. It will be guest-edited by Itiola Jones, winner of the 2018 Brittle Paper Award for Poetry, and Nome Patrick Emeka, finalist for the 2018 Sillerman First Book Prize […]
Attend The New Yorker Festival Masterclass with Teju Cole and Zadie Smith
Tickets are currently on sale for a masterclass with the award-winning writers Teju Cole and Zadie Smith. Themed “On Writing,” it is part of a series of events for the 20th The New Yorker Festival, a landmark event every October which “brings together the biggest names in news, politics, books, film, music, art, and popular […]
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