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Search Results for: Sierra Leone

October 7, 2021

Linking Sierra Leonean Literature

Poda-Poda Stories is a digital platform for writers from Sierra Leone, whose literary scene was disrupted by a decade-long civil war and is now regenerating with great promise. “I started it to look inward and celebrate our own writing,” says editor Ngozi Cole in this interview. “What was missing was building bridges and connections.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Photo from Sierra Leone Writers Collective on Facebook.

August 5, 2021

In Ishmael Beah’s Little Family, Sierra Leonean Kids Seek a Home

The activist and writer’s second novel is “a profound and tender portrayal of the connections we forge to survive the fate we’re dealt.”
Paula Willie-Okafor
Ishmael Beah's Little Family. Photo by Saturdaynitereader.com.

July 26, 2021

Doek! Magazine Releases Issue 6

The Namibian magazine’s latest issue, Tomorrow/Together, features, among others, contributors from Jamaica, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, and Tanzania for the very first time.
Doek! Magazine
Doek! Issue 6 cover.

January 6, 2021

Aminatta Forna’s Essays in The Window Seat Explore Movement, Trauma, & Memory

The Sierra Leonean British author examines race in America through the lens of an African and what it means to walk the world in a Black woman’s body.
Ernest Ogunyemi
The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion by Aminatta Forna.

November 7, 2025

Chude Jideonwo’s Stage of Nigerian Dreams

As a salesman of youth power, Africa’s most influential millennial curator reinvented himself from new media maven to political power player, and, now, a wellness advocate. Each iteration transformed culture. One left him scarred.
Adesomola Adedayo
Chude Jideonwo by Yemi Kings

January 16, 2025

60 Notable Books of 2024

From Chigozie Obioma, Sulaiman Addonia, Reem Gafar, and Dinaw Mengestu to Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Abi Dare, and Nadifa Mohamed: the notable books of 2024 by Africans.
Open Country Mag
The Best African Books of 2024

November 25, 2024

A Navy Pilot Pivoted to Writing, Spurred by Surrealists

While flying military helicopters, Umar Abubakar Sidi wrote the two top-selling poetry books in Nigeria. Now he has a novel. One day, he will write about military life: “It is a reality I cannot escape.”
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera
Umar Abubakar Sidi's two collections were the Nos. 1 and 2 bestselling poetry books in Nigeria.

August 5, 2024

A Lack in Liberian Literature

There is no literary bookstore in Africa’s oldest modern country. But, after civil wars and an epidemic, its writers are writing, and hoping.
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera
A group of Liberian writers attend a reading at the University of Liberia in 2022.

October 3, 2023

“You Have to Celebrate Writers While They’re Alive”: Labone Dialogues Is the Year’s Big Event in African Literature

Headlined by a quartet of feted veteran voices in Wole Soyinka, Aminatta Forna, Jennifer Makumbi, and Chris Abani, NYU Accra’s 30-author symposium is a convergence of inspiration. “We have to tell our own story,” said convener and school director Chike Frankie Edozien.
Otosirieze
Jennifer Makumbi

August 19, 2023

Lolwe Calls for Submissions to Issue 8

Lolwe

December 29, 2022

60 Notable Books of 2022

From Warsan Shire, Romeo Oriogun, and Safia Elhillo to Arinze Ifeakandu, Akwaeke Emezi, NoViolet Bulawayo, and Chinelo Okparanta: our second annual highlight of the top titles of the year by African writers.
Open Country Mag
The Notable Books of 2022

October 15, 2022

It’s a Continent Is a Popular History Podcast. Now It’s Also a Book.

Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba on how their “conversational approach to the book and podcast allows us to reach audiences who wouldn’t typically engage with such content.”
Paula Willie-Okafor
Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba, hosts and authors of the podcast-turned-book It's a Continent. Image supplied.

July 25, 2022

Lolwe Calls for Submissions to Issue 6

The issue will be guest-edited by Tlotlo Tsamaase, Frazier Michael, and Lucky Grace. It opens for submissions on August 1.
Lolwe
Lolwe Issue 3. Photo credit: "young and hurt" by Teddy Tavan.

March 31, 2022

22 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born before the Last 60 Years and Now Gone

For Women’s History Month: global, continental, and national literary icons from the 20th century.
Open Country Mag
20 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born in the Last 45 Years. Curated by Open Country Mag for Women's History Month, March 2022.

February 2, 2022

Anticipated Books of 2022

From NoViolet Bulawayo and Arinze Ifeakandu to Warsan Shire and Romeo Oriogun, here are over 50 books expected to lead the literary conversation.
Open Country Mag
The Anticipated Books of 2022

January 7, 2022

Doek! Magazine Releases Issue 7

The Namibian magazine’s latest issue, Soon/Come, features contributors from three continents. Read the editorial note by its founder Remy Ngamije.
Doek! Magazine
Doek Magazine Issue 7. Cover image by Collective For Black Iranians.

December 29, 2021

60 Notable Books of 2021

From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Bernardine Evaristo to Teju Cole, Damon Galgut, and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, our first annual highlight of the top titles of the year by African writers.
Open Country Mag

July 26, 2021

Meron Hadero Wins AKO Caine Prize, for “Beautiful Tale” of Ethiopia’s “Young, Ingenuous Generation”

The writer, previously shortlisted for the £10,000 award in 2019, is the first winner from her country. Her story, “The Street Sweep,” “negotiates the imported power dynamics of foreign aid in Addis Ababa.”
The AKO Caine Prize
Meron Hadero. Credit: Meron Hadero.

October 7, 2021

Photo from Sierra Leone Writers Collective on Facebook.

Linking Sierra Leonean Literature

Poda-Poda Stories is a digital platform for writers from Sierra Leone, whose literary scene was disrupted by a decade-long civil war and is now regenerating with great promise. “I started it to look inward and celebrate our own writing,” says editor Ngozi Cole in this interview. “What was missing was building bridges and connections.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

August 5, 2021

Ishmael Beah's Little Family. Photo by Saturdaynitereader.com.

In Ishmael Beah’s Little Family, Sierra Leonean Kids Seek a Home

The activist and writer’s second novel is “a profound and tender portrayal of the connections we forge to survive the fate we’re dealt.”
Paula Willie-Okafor

July 26, 2021

Doek! Issue 6 cover.

Doek! Magazine Releases Issue 6

The Namibian magazine’s latest issue, Tomorrow/Together, features, among others, contributors from Jamaica, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, and Tanzania for the very first time.
Doek! Magazine

January 6, 2021

The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion by Aminatta Forna.

Aminatta Forna’s Essays in The Window Seat Explore Movement, Trauma, & Memory

The Sierra Leonean British author examines race in America through the lens of an African and what it means to walk the world in a Black woman’s body.
Ernest Ogunyemi

November 7, 2025

Chude Jideonwo by Yemi Kings

Chude Jideonwo’s Stage of Nigerian Dreams

As a salesman of youth power, Africa’s most influential millennial curator reinvented himself from new media maven to political power player, and, now, a wellness advocate. Each iteration transformed culture. One left him scarred.
Adesomola Adedayo

January 16, 2025

The Best African Books of 2024

60 Notable Books of 2024

From Chigozie Obioma, Sulaiman Addonia, Reem Gafar, and Dinaw Mengestu to Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Abi Dare, and Nadifa Mohamed: the notable books of 2024 by Africans.
Open Country Mag

November 25, 2024

Umar Abubakar Sidi's two collections were the Nos. 1 and 2 bestselling poetry books in Nigeria.

A Navy Pilot Pivoted to Writing, Spurred by Surrealists

While flying military helicopters, Umar Abubakar Sidi wrote the two top-selling poetry books in Nigeria. Now he has a novel. One day, he will write about military life: “It is a reality I cannot escape.”
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera

August 5, 2024

A group of Liberian writers attend a reading at the University of Liberia in 2022.

A Lack in Liberian Literature

There is no literary bookstore in Africa’s oldest modern country. But, after civil wars and an epidemic, its writers are writing, and hoping.
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera

October 3, 2023

Jennifer Makumbi

“You Have to Celebrate Writers While They’re Alive”: Labone Dialogues Is the Year’s Big Event in African Literature

Headlined by a quartet of feted veteran voices in Wole Soyinka, Aminatta Forna, Jennifer Makumbi, and Chris Abani, NYU Accra’s 30-author symposium is a convergence of inspiration. “We have to tell our own story,” said convener and school director Chike Frankie Edozien.
Otosirieze

August 19, 2023

Lolwe Calls for Submissions to Issue 8

Lolwe

December 29, 2022

The Notable Books of 2022

60 Notable Books of 2022

From Warsan Shire, Romeo Oriogun, and Safia Elhillo to Arinze Ifeakandu, Akwaeke Emezi, NoViolet Bulawayo, and Chinelo Okparanta: our second annual highlight of the top titles of the year by African writers.
Open Country Mag

October 15, 2022

Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba, hosts and authors of the podcast-turned-book It's a Continent. Image supplied.

It’s a Continent Is a Popular History Podcast. Now It’s Also a Book.

Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba on how their “conversational approach to the book and podcast allows us to reach audiences who wouldn’t typically engage with such content.”
Paula Willie-Okafor

July 25, 2022

Lolwe Issue 3. Photo credit: "young and hurt" by Teddy Tavan.

Lolwe Calls for Submissions to Issue 6

The issue will be guest-edited by Tlotlo Tsamaase, Frazier Michael, and Lucky Grace. It opens for submissions on August 1.
Lolwe

March 31, 2022

20 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born in the Last 45 Years. Curated by Open Country Mag for Women's History Month, March 2022.

22 African Writers, Groundbreaking and Female, Born before the Last 60 Years and Now Gone

For Women’s History Month: global, continental, and national literary icons from the 20th century.
Open Country Mag

February 2, 2022

The Anticipated Books of 2022

Anticipated Books of 2022

From NoViolet Bulawayo and Arinze Ifeakandu to Warsan Shire and Romeo Oriogun, here are over 50 books expected to lead the literary conversation.
Open Country Mag

January 7, 2022

Doek Magazine Issue 7. Cover image by Collective For Black Iranians.

Doek! Magazine Releases Issue 7

The Namibian magazine’s latest issue, Soon/Come, features contributors from three continents. Read the editorial note by its founder Remy Ngamije.
Doek! Magazine

December 29, 2021

60 Notable Books of 2021

From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Bernardine Evaristo to Teju Cole, Damon Galgut, and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, our first annual highlight of the top titles of the year by African writers.
Open Country Mag

July 26, 2021

Meron Hadero. Credit: Meron Hadero.

Meron Hadero Wins AKO Caine Prize, for “Beautiful Tale” of Ethiopia’s “Young, Ingenuous Generation”

The writer, previously shortlisted for the £10,000 award in 2019, is the first winner from her country. Her story, “The Street Sweep,” “negotiates the imported power dynamics of foreign aid in Addis Ababa.”
The AKO Caine Prize

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— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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