In 2018, BBC Culture polled literary experts around the world to “nominate up to five fictional stories they felt had shaped mindsets or influenced history.” They received responses from 108 writers, critics, journalists, academics, and translators from 35 countries, who selected novels, folk tales, poetry, and dramas in 33 different languages. We ran a piece […]
Tag Archives: Ben Okri
Twelve African Writers on the Legacy of Toni Morrison, for Decades the Greatest Living Writer
Toni Morrison, for decades the greatest living writer, passed on at 88, on 6 August. We have compiled tributes to her, published on other sites, by Namwali Serpell, Diana Evans, Bernardine Evaristo, Chigozie Obioma, Ben Okri, Aminatta Forna, Afua Hirsch, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Margaret Busby, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Laila Lalami. For […]
Ben Okri to Headline the 2019 African Book Festival in Berlin, with Ainehi Edoro, Musa Okwonga as Moderators | All the Guests + Key Events
Ben Okri will headline the 2019 African Book Festival in Berlin, curated by Tsitsi Dangarembga, where panels will be moderated by Brittle Paper founder Ainehi Edoro, the Berlin-based writers Musa Okwonga and Clementine Burnley, and TV literary programme host Denis Scheck. The event—funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds, presented by the literary agency InterKontinental, and themed “Transitioning from Migration”—will be held […]
The Freedom Artist, Ben Okri’s New Novel Forthcoming in January 2019, Is a Rallying Call in a Post-Truth Society
Ben Okri has a new novel forthcoming in January 2019. The Nigerian novelist-poet-essayist, who is the only black African to receive the Booker Prize, in 1991 for his The Famished Road, had the 256-page book rights acquired by Head of Zeus for release in the UK in February 2019, by HarperCollins for release in Australia […]
Bringing Achebe’s Masterpiece to Life | Highlights from the 60th Anniversary Reading of Things Fall Apart | Eddie Hewitt
60 years on from the first publication of Things Fall Apart, I was excited to be in Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre to pay homage to Chinua Achebe and to enjoy a performance of his masterpiece by a stellar group of readers. A seven hour session of the finest literary entertainment, presented by […]
African Literary Digest: 8 Must-Reads from January, 2017
We ended 2016 with a compilation of our best pieces of the year. The first month of 2017 is gone but it wasn’t arid: there was writing that caught our attention, and both the LGBTIQ group 14 and Afreada magazine released beautiful anthologies. Here are our must-read selections, an unranked list. They’re all online so […]
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