Binyavanga Wainaina

Tag Archives: Binyavanga Wainaina

Features, Lit Scene, News 2018/10/04

The 2018 Brittle Paper Awards: Announcing the Shortlists

We are delighted to announce the shortlists for the 2018 Brittle Paper Awards. Begun in 2017 to mark our seventh anniversary, the Awards aim to recognize the finest, original pieces of writing by Africans published online. The $1,100 cash prize is split across five categories: the Brittle Paper Award for Fiction ($200), the Brittle Paper Award […]

A Portrait of Iconic Gay African Writers | This Video of Binyavanga Wainaina and Diriye Osman Is Everything

Four years ago, Binyavanga Wainaina visited Diriye Osman, the fabulously gay author of the Polaris Award-winning story collection Fairytales for Lost Children and the forthcoming novel We Once Belonged to the Sea. Their encounter, including a beautiful video of them sharing laughter and honesty, was uploaded on Osman’s website in October of last year, and was […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News 2018/08/14

I Started Reading and Just Stopped Halfway and Thought—This is Really Bad | What Achebe, Soyinka, Adichie, Forna, Binyavanga, Teju Cole, Serpell Thought About VS Naipaul

VS Naipaul, Nobel Prize and Booker Prize-winning novelist and nonfiction writer, passed on days ago at 85 years of age. As is the norm, countless think pieces have appeared on his life. While Naipaul’s genius talent and his standing as a literary great aren’t in doubt, it is his legacy that stutters. Born in Trinidad […]

Binyavanga Wainaina Is in Love, Getting Married Next Year

Binyavanga Wainaina is in love. He began posting a series of announcements on social media two weeks ago. “I am in love,” he wrote on Facebook. Then last week: “Am getting married next year.” And then a more detailed post: I asked my love for his hand in marriage two weeks ago. He said yes, […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News, Stories and Poems 2018/02/12

The Brittle Paper Digest: 79 Notable Pieces of 2017

It isn’t that time of the year when we look back on what happened in it—that time is December, and this is February. But a delay in releasing this list seemed inevitable for a year that, on several levels, saw our literary culture expand. Organisations took groundbreaking steps: in March, Jalada Africa held a 12-city, […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News 2017/12/22

Binyavanga Wainaina, Chigozie Obioma, Hawa J Golakai, Megan Ross: 15 Writers and Editors Tell Us What They Are Reading for Christmas

For the Christmas season, we asked 15 writers and editors to tell us what they would be reading. Binyavanga Wainaina, Chigozie Obioma, Hawa Jande Golakai, Gaamangwe Joy Mogami, Megan Ross, Gbenga Adesina, Efemia Chela, Nancy Adimora, Leila Chatti, Koleka Putuma, TJ Benson, Sibongile Fisher, Linda Musita, Yalie Kamara, and Chibuihe Obi. Their lists are towering […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News, Stories and Poems, Submission 2017/10/28

Chapter Thirty-Three | Binyavanga Wainaina | Memoir

From Binyavanga Wainaina: This is the last chapter of my book. One Day I Will Write About This Place. I had not come out as gay when this was published. I thought of coming out as gay in this book. I just lacked the heart to tell my father, we used to call him Babs. […]

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Features, Lit Scene, News, Submission 2017/10/25

A Letter to All Kenyans from Binyavanga Wainaina or Binyavanga wa Muigai

OVER THE PAST few years, I have come to believe in honoring my ancestors. This has become a very deep part of my spirituality. I discovered this in South Africa, where I spent six months this year while still recovering from a stroke that nearly killed me two years ago. I was not ready to come […]