Once in a while, an essay comes along, stinging and unrelenting, that tears readers into camps of agreement and disagreement. Three days ago, UW-Madison professor Ainehi Edoro, founder of Brittle Paper, came up with such an essay. Published in Africa Is a Country, “Gods of Fiction: African Writers and the Fantasy of Power” uses Chinua […]
Tag Archives: nadine gordimer
African Writers Series’ Classics Now Available for Affordable Downloads on OkadaBooks
In 1962, four years after the successful publication of Things Fall Apart, its British publishers Heinemann Educational Books began the African Writers Series (AWS)—a series of books by African writers packaged to give international voice to the continent’s literature in English. The series published paperback books by most of the major voices of the day: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Steve […]
I Was a Dreadful Child | Nadine Gordimer on Her Rather Quirky Childhood
When I came across this Paris Review 1979/1980 interview with Nadine Gordimer, I scanned it for gossip-worthy stuff that I could share with you all. The Nobel Prize winning South African author sounded relaxed in the interview. She was clearly in the mood to share intimate things about her life. She talks about her Lithuanian father […]
Gordimer Is Asked Whether She Smokes Marijuana While Writing…And Other Weird Questions
Nadine Gordimer is asked all these “silly” questions that journalists would typically never ask an author. Her answers are funny but revealing. It’s a UK Guardian interview done during the 2010 Hay Festival. Amazing! What is the most important lack in your life? I’ve lived that life in Africa without learning an African […]
The Novelist as Witness— Aminatta Forna on How Nadine Gordimer Inspired Her Writing
Around the time I started my first novel, I came across the words: “Non-fiction uses fact to help us see the lies. Fiction uses metaphor to help us see the truth.” I pinned the words on a piece of paper to my noticeboard, and tried and failed to find the originator of that observation. Later, I read […]
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