Top Posts
Nigerian Poet Wins Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize 
With Novels & Images, Maaza Mengiste Is Reframing Ethiopian History 
Maaza Mengiste Covers Open Country Mag: Jan. 2021 
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is Hosting a N50K Giveaway 
4 Poetry Prizes That Are Currently Open 
Get Published in Of This Our Country, with Chimamanda Adichie & Chigozie Obioma 
20.35 Africa Vol. III Review—The Pain Won’t Go Away 
Apply to A Public Space’s Writing Fellowships 2021
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Features
by Paula Willie-Okafor
The Kenyan writer tells us her motivations and approach to teaching writing.
by Ernest Ogunyemi
Wale Ayinla’s To Cast a Dream will now be published by Jai-Alai Books.
by Otosirieze Obi-Young
Her novels, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze and the Booker Prize-shortlisted The Shadow King, explore the Revolution and the Italo-Abyssinian War. Now, with Project 3541, she is building a photography archive.
by Otosirieze Obi-Young
After two acclaimed books, the historical novelist is now looking to photography to chronicle Ethiopia.
Books
by Uzoma Ihejirika
It is the 10th novel by the Tanzanian author, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996.
by Ernest Ogunyemi
The book, praised by Kwame Dawes, Ilya Kaminsky, and Matthew Shenoda, is a “dialogue between the father and his deceased daughter.”
by Uzoma Ihejirika
It is an “unsettling tale of murder in a country whose dead slaves are shackled with stories that must be heard.”
by Uzoma Ihejirika
By publishing poets both at the center and in the margins of the scene, 20.35 Africa has become a major resource institution for African poets.
Her debut novel, Nervous Conditions, is a modern classic, and after The Book of Not, she concludes Tambu’s story with the Booker Prize-shortlisted This Mournable Body. But the literary and film icon never planned for these to take almost four decades.
by Otosirieze Obi-Young
Events
by Otosirieze Obi-Young
Olumide Makanjuola, Matthew Blaise, Mariam Sule, Zikoko Magazine, and State of Emergency GBV Movement named winners by TIERS.
by Uzoma Ihejirika
Festival Director Teniola Tayo tells us about the festival’s mission, the 2020 edition, and projections for the future.
by Uzoma Ihejirika
. . . by resisting the narrative that Africa can only be ground zero for the violation and destruction of queer persons.
Opportunities
by Ernest Ogunyemi
Do you have a packet of ready poems you want to send out? We have collected four poetry contests that are currently open and that you can submit to.
by Ernest Ogunyemi
The residency will be held in October 2021.
by Uzoma Ihejirika
The Fellowships are open to writers “who have not yet contracted to publish a book.”
Community
by Paula Willie-Okafor
Read her short story, “Olikoye,” and you might win.
by Paula Willie-Okafor
#ReadAlongWithChimamanda was a weekly session where readers asked questions about her Women’s Prize-winning book.
by Uzoma Ihejirika
The Zimbabwean novelist, most recently on the December 2020 cover of Open Country Mag, was arrested last year for protesting in Harare.
With Society of Book and Magazine Editors of Nigeria (SBMEN), two publishers, Anwuli Ojogwu of Narrative Landscape and Enajite Efemuaye, formerly of Kachifo, are laying foundation for the future.
by Otosirieze Obi-Young
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