Mukoma wa Ngugi will be publishing a new novel with Cassava Republic Press. Titled We Unbury Our Dead with Song, the novel centers on four competing Tizita musicians and is set in Kenya and Ethiopia. In a tweet announcing the news, Mukoma describes the book as his “love letter to African creativity and imaginations,” and […]
Nobel Prize in Literature: Ngugi wa Thiong’o Is Bookies’ 4th Favourite for One of 2019’s Two Awards
It has been a tradition, since the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, for literary people to wonder when it should be Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s turn. And this year, the perennial favourite is, once again, a favourite. And the twist of 2019—the Swedish Academy’s announcement that it will be giving […]
Photos & Details: How Prestige Bookshop Hosted the Nairobi Launch of Yvonne Owuor’s The Dragonfly Sea
By Shingai Kagunda Photos by Prestige Bookshop. On 1 March 2019, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor launched her second novel, The Dragonfly Sea, for the first time. She honoured us by doing so at Prestige Bookshop with an open audience and a mini panel discussion. Nairobi was not prepared for the explosive event that took place inside our […]
At 81, Ngugi wa Thiong’o Announces 34th Book, a Gikuyu Philosophical Epic Novel, 13 Years After His Last
Thirteen years after his last novel Wizard of the Crow, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who turned 81 on 5 January, has a new one forthcoming. Kenda Muiyuru: Rugano Rwa Gikuyu na Mumbi, published in Gikuyu by East African Educational Publishers, is, according to Kenya’s The Standard, “a ground-breaking epic that subverts patriarchy and roots for social equity.” The […]
In a Pub in the Hearafter | By P Ochieng Ochieng | An African Story
Except at the end of the cycle, when the AFRO PRESIDENTS pub fills to capacity, Jomo always stops by for a drink. Today he occupies a spot close to the pub’s Eastern portal. His eyes are glued to a book. Reaching out for his beer-mug, he raises it above his grey beard and takes a […]
African Literary News | Binyavanga Wainaina Signs a Two-Book Deal with Publishing Power House
Binyavanga Wainaina is back! Okay, not that he’s been absent. He has made excellent use of social media as a platform for sharing his signature provocations on African literature, culture and politics. But it’s been exactly 3 years since his last book, One Day I Will Write About This Place. And while we love Binyavanga’s Tweets […]