The Brittle Paper Literary Awards is our way of recognizing the finest, original pieces of literature by Africans available online for free. We announced it to mark our seventh anniversary. Its five categories—Fiction ($200), Poetry ($200), Creative Nonfiction/Memoir ($200), Essays/Think Pieces ($200), and the Anniversary Award ($300) for writing published by us—reflect our efforts to […]
Tag Archives: Binyavanga Wainaina
The Brittle Paper Award for Creative Nonfiction/Memoir: Meet the Nominees
To mark our seventh anniversary on August 1, 2017, we announced the inaugural Brittle Paper Literary Awards, to recognize the finest, original pieces of African writing published online. The awards come in five categories: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction/Memoir, Essays/Think Pieces, and the Anniversary Award for works published on our blog. The winners in the fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction/memoir and essays/think […]
The Brittle Paper Award for Fiction: Meet the Nominees
To mark our seventh anniversary on August 1, 2017, we announced the inaugural Brittle Paper Literary Awards, to recognize the finest, original pieces of African writing published online. The awards come in five categories: Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Essays/Think Pieces, and the Anniversary Award for works published on our blog. The winners in the fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and essays/think pieces […]
New Website Collects Everything Binyavanga Wainaina Has Written Since the Late 1990s
A new Website has collected everything published by Binyavanga Wainaina since his writing career began in the late 1990s. The site, Planetbinya.org, is run by Isaac Otidi Amuke. This “unofficial archive of Binyavanga Wainaina’s work” includes his very first published piece, “Black Mischief,” in G21 magazine. G21 also published his Caine Prize-winning “Discovering Home,” an autobiographical […]
Mamadou Diallo Needs Funding for the English Translation of His Memoir-cum-Biography Co-written with Binyavanga Wainaina
The Senegalese writer and contributing editor for Chimurenga, Mamadou Diallo, recently scored a collaboration with Binyavanga Wainaina. His memoir-cum-biography, What a Friend Told Me, is co-written with Binyavanga and tells “the story of Alpha, a queer Senegalese man from a family of traditional woodworkers, who has long been designing spaces, clothes and furniture for friends.” The book, […]
Announcing the Brittle Paper Literary Awards: The Shortlists
August 1, 2017 was Brittle Paper‘s seventh anniversary. In celebration of this milestone, we are launching the Brittle Paper Literary Awards, to recognize the finest, original pieces of African writing published online. The awards come in five categories: Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Essays/Think Pieces, and the Anniversary Award for works published on our blog. The winners in the fiction, […]
EVENT: Binyavanga Wainaina to Speak at University of the Witwatersrand
Binyavanga Wainaina will be speaking at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He will be in conversation with the researcher and writer Achal Prabhala and Danai Mupotsa, who is a PhD in African Literature with the faculty. They will be discussing “How to Write About Everything.” The topic is a play on Binyavanga’s seminal 2006 essay […]
Why Adichie’s Farafina Workshop Will Not Hold This Year
There will be no 2017 Farafina Creative Writing Workshop. In an email to Brittle Paper, Chimamanda Adichie, who is Creative Director at the workshop, stated that “our sponsor, Nigerian Breweries PLC (NB PLC), abruptly withdrew their sponsorship due to a need to streamline their expenditure.” First held in 2008, the cancelled 2017 event would have […]
I hold a doctorate in English from Duke University and recently joined the Marquette University English faculty as an Assistant Professor. I love teaching African fiction and contemporary British novels. Brittle Paper is the virtual space/station where I play and experiment with ideas on how to reinvent African fiction and literary culture.
