Aminatta Forna’s fourth novel and fifth book Happiness is one of the six finalists for the 2019 Ondaatje Prize. The announcement was made at an RSL London event themed “The Spirit of a Place.” Alongside her on the longlist was the Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma, for his second book and first collection of essays A Stranger’s Pose. […]
Tag Archives: aminatta forna
Aminatta Forna and Emmanuel Iduma Longlisted for the 2019 Ondaatje Prize
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) has announced the longlist for the 2019 Ondaatje Prize, and on it are Aminatta Forna, for her fourth novel and fifth book Happiness, and Emmanuel Iduma, for his second book and first collection of essays A Stranger’s Pose. Named after Christopher Ondaatje, the annual £10,000 Ondaatje Prize, which incorporates the Winifred Holtby Memorial […]
Margaret Busby on Why She Began the Daughters of Africa Anthology Series and Its Groundbreaking Impact
In 1992, Margaret Busby, Britain’s first black female publisher, edited an anthology of female African writers and female writers of African descent. Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present, published by Ballantine Books, was groundbreaking in its presentation and exposure of the work […]
Photos from the London Launch of Margaret Busby’s New Daughters of Africa Anthology
Last October, it was announced that Britain’s first black female publisher Margaret Busby will edit a new anthology featuring 200 female African writers and female writers of African descent across generations. New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of 20th- and 21st-Century Writing by Women of African Descent—which “charts a contemporary literary canon from 1900 and […]
OkayAfrica’s 100 Women List 2019 Includes Aminatta Forna, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Sisonke Msimang, Alongside Adwoa Aboah, Thandie Newton, Oby Ezekwesili
The novelist Aminatta Forna, Cassava Republic Press co-founder Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, the essayist and activist Sisonke Msimang, the novelist Tomi Adeyemi, the memoirist Clemantine Wamariya, and the writer Kemiyondo Coutinho have been included in OkayAfrica‘s “100 Women” list for 2019. The six literary figures appear alongside the supermodels Adut Akech and Adwoa Aboah, the rising model Duckie Thot, […]
The Art & Politics of Walking in Public as Women of Colour: Aminatta Forna and Taiye Selasi in Conversation
Novelists Aminatta Forna and Taiye Selasi were recently in an email conversation about the art and politics of walking in public as women of colour. Their conversation, published by Literary Hub and titled “Whose Streets?,” is a revealing, empowering response to an essay by Forna which appeared in Freeman’s magazine. Titled “Power Walking,” Forna’s essay […]
The Revealing Reason Why Aminatta Forna Likes Writing Male Characters
Last year, Somali writer and visual artist Diriye Osman, author of the Polaris Award-winning story collection Fairytales for Lost Children and the forthcoming novel We Once Belonged to the Sea, explained the concept of literary androgyny: that gender-straddling sensibility possessed by the best storytellers—women writing men, men writing women. But Aminatta Forna, from the interview […]
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