Eight African writers have been elected into the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) as part of its 40 Under 40 initiative: poets Warsan Shire and Inua Ellams, novelists Sabrina Mahfouz, Nadifa Mohamed, Irenosen Okojie, and Chibundu Onuzo, , and playwright Bola Agbaje. Beyond the 40 Under 40 initiative, there were two more inductees: street rapper Mojisola Adebayo and poet Kwame Dawes, […]
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 […]
Chibundu Onuzo is Coming to America! | See All the Dates
US-based fans of Chibundu Onuzo are in luck. Her critically acclaimed second novel Welcome to Lagos will officially be released in the US market on May 1 by Catapult. Onuzo kicks off a month-long US tour on the same day of the release. It promises to be an exciting tour. She will stop at major US […]
Dear Ms. Paper: Is Chibundo Onuzo’s Welcome to Lagos Worth the Read?
Dear Ms. Paper: I’m not a big novel reader, to be honest. It takes a good novel to keep me away from using my very precious down time to Netflix and chill. When I mean good novel, I mean juicy story with all levels of dramatic intensity. I wanted to know if Welcome to Lagos […]
Art Chasing Life Blatantly | Review of Chibundu Onuzo’s Welcome to Lagos | by Kola Tubosun
For almost two-thirds of Chibundu Onuzo’s new book, one searches in vain to find the source of the title, Welcome to Lagos (Faber & Faber, 2016). Was it ironically chosen to direct the reader on some chase of relevant nuggets of the city’s peculiarities or selected just for the foreboding it suggests to those already […]
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 […]
PHOTOS: Chibundu Onuzo Redefines the Classic Literary Book Launch Party
A few days ago, book lovers gathered at London’s Southbank Center for the launch of Chibundu Onuzo’s second novel, Welcome to Lagos. The photos are finally here, and we are delighted to share them with you. A little bit of background to prepare you for the photos you are about to see. Onuzo has always […]
Chibundu Onuzo’s New Short Story is About Love, Weight Loss, and Instagram
Chibundu Onuzo’s second novel Welcome to Lagos hit the stands a few days ago. She’s also gifted us a brand new short story that incorporates everything we obsess about in contemporary culture—Instagram, netflix, hashtags, weight loss, and many more. The story is titled “Kentish Town” and was published on www.express.co.uk. “Kentish Town” tells the story of Aramide who […]