Big win for British author of Congolese descent JJ Bola. He has secured a two-book deal with Dialogue Books an imprint of Little Brown for his forthcoming novels The Selfless Act of Breathing and OTA The Bookseller reports that Publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Maria Cardona at the Pontas […]
Tag Archives: JJ Bola
Your African Literary Horoscope: What To Read in May, Based on Your Star Sign
Looking for something to read this month of May? Why not let the power of celestial bodies decide? Below, we recommend books to read based on your May forecast. Check your star sign for some reading inspo! Aries As the first sign of the zodiac, you’re known for being a pioneer, always eager to kick […]
“We Men Are Destroying Ourselves, Destroying Women. It’s an Urgent Issue We Need to Change”: Congolese Novelist JJ Bola’s Facebook Video on International Men’s Day
Congolese novelist JJ Bola, author of No Place to Call Home, has a message for men. In a video posted on Facebook on International Men’s Day, November 20, he talked about the need for men to look after each other so as to stop the damage they inflict both on themselves and on women. His post […]
Writing in Migration | Photos from the Festival of African Writers in Berlin
Last month, the Nigerian-German novelist Olumide Popoola, author of When We Speak of Nothing, curated a star-studded festival of African writers in Berlin. The event, held from 26–28 April at Kino Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 3010178, Berlin, was themed “Writing in Migration” and was presented by the literary agency InterKontinental. It was sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Berlin’s Senate Department for […]
Congolese Novelist JJ Bola in UN Facebook Live Conversation with Oscar Winner Cate Blanchett
Congolese novelist JJ Bola, author of No Place to Call Home (2017), was hosted in a conversation by Oscar winning actress Cate Blanchett. The event, which also featured Webster University student, Aya Abdullah, is an initiative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), meant to draw attention to the plight of refugees worldwide. […]
Olumide Popoola to Curate Star-Studded 2018 Berlin Festival of African Writers
Olumide Popoola, Nigerian-German author of When We Speak of Nothing, will be curating a star-studded 2018 festival of African writers in Berlin. The event, themed “Writing in Migration,” is presented by the literary agency InterKontinental, and will be attended by writers from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, and Ghana. For the first […]
After Selling Out at Writivism Festival, Is J.J. Bola’s No Place To Call Home the Next Literary Sensation?
News is that J.J. Bola’s debut novel, No Place to Call Home: Love, Loss, Belonging, sold out at the 2017 Writivism Festival. It sold out in the festival’s first two days, a development Writivism’s Jacob Katumusiime has dubbed “The J.J. Bola Effect.” If that’s remarkable, then wait till you find that, of all the novels on display […]
Kopano Matlwa, JJ Bola, Masande Ntshanga: Pontas Agency Novelists Get US Publication Dates
Pontas Literary Agency, which represents Tram 83 author Fiston Mwanza Mujila and The Fishermen author Chigozie Obioma, has set publication dates for novels by eight of its authors. They include South African Kopano Matlwa’s Evening Primrose, British-Congolese JJ Bola’s No Place To Call Home, and South African Masande Ntshanga’s The Reactive. One of the novels […]
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