Finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes have been announced. The Ethiopian novelist Maaza Mengiste is nominated in the Fiction category for her second novel The Shadow King, which is set during the second Italo-Ethiopian war and centers on women who fought in it. The Zambian novelist Namwali Serpell is nominated in the Ray […]
Tag Archives: Namwali Serpell
The Top 15 Debut Books of 2019
The year 2019 was full. While it is gone, its books are not. In December, we released our list of The Notable Books of 2019 by African authors. As we look ahead into 2020, we list the year’s most notable debuts books and authors in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, some of which also appear in […]
Tsitsi Dangarembga on Reading Namwali Serpell, Zukiswa Wanner, & Why Ben Okri’s Latest Novel Is Like a Creative Writing Course
The Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga was recent featured in The Guardian‘s “Books That Made Me” series, in which authors answer questions about other writers’ works that impacted their careers. Dangarembga is the author of the classic Nervous Conditions, and her most recent novel This Mournable Body was published by Graywolf Press in 2018. Among the […]
Happy 82nd Birthday, Ngūgī wa Thiong’o! Read These Introductions to His Novels by Ben Okri, Namwali Serpell, Uzodinma Iweala, Abdulrazak Gurnah, & Moses Isegawa
It’s Ngūgī wa Thiong’o’s 82nd birthday! The prolific legend has published 34 books in total. His fictional works include seven novels: Weep Not, Child (1964), The River Between (1965), A Grain of Wheat (1967, 1992), Petals of Blood (1977), Caitaani Mutharaba-Ini (Devil on the Cross, 1980), Matigari ma Njiruungi (1986), Mũrogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow, 2006), and Kenda Muiyuru: Rugano Rwa Gikuyu na Mumbi (2018), published […]
The 2019 Brittle Paper Awards: Announcing The Winners
In November, we announced The 5 Shortlists for The 2019 Brittle Paper Awards. Launched in 2017 to mark our seventh anniversary, The BP Awards aim to recognize the finest, original pieces of writing by Africans published online—writing that has prompted, enhanced, or defined conversations. The $1,100 prize money is split across five categories: The Brittle Paper Award for Fiction ($200), The Brittle […]
The 2019 Brittle Paper Award for Essays & Think Pieces: Meet The 5 Finalists
The 5 Shortlists for The 2019 Brittle Paper Awards were announced in November. Begun in 2017 to mark our seventh anniversary, the Awards aim to recognize the finest, original pieces of writing by Africans published online. READ: The 2017 Brittle Paper Award for Essays & Think Pieces: Meet the Finalists READ: The 2018 Brittle Paper Award for […]
Is There a Quota of 5 Books by African Authors for Every “Best 100 Books of 2019” List?
As yet another year draws to a close, literary lists of various sorts are once again filling our newsfeeds. During the first week of November 2019, BBC Arts released a list titled “100 Novels That Shaped Our World.” On that list, Brittle Paper noted that there were five novels by African authors which, in the words […]
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