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December 21, 2021

Ukamaka Olisakwe Wins 2021 SprinNG Women Authors Prize

The novelist and Isele editor’s second novel, Ogadinma, Or: Everything Will Be Alright, will receive marketing worth N200,000.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Ukamaka Olisakwe. Credit: Ukamaka Olisakwe.

December 11, 2021

Arinze Ifeakandu’s Debut, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, Dissects Queer Male Intimacy

Edmund White praised it as “the beginning of a brilliant career.” Adam Haslett called the book “heartbroken but pulsing with life” and Ifeakandu “a major talent.”
Uzoma Ihejirika
Arinze Ifeakandu’s Debut, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, Dissects Queer Male Intimacy

December 11, 2021

Ayobami Adebayo’s A Spell of Good Things Is a Tale of Two Families

The Nigerian writer’s second novel, the follow-up to 2017’s Stay with Me, will arrive in 2022.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Ayobami Adebayo's first novel, Stay with Me. From Author's Facebook.

December 11, 2021

Five Nigerians Seek Guinness World Record with 480-Hour Reading Marathon

“The major goal for me isn’t so much breaking the Guinness records,” one of them, Bayode Olawunmi-Treasures, has said: “it is to make reading great again.”
Uzoma Ihejirika
Bayode Olawunmi-Treasures read aloud for 120 hours and over five days in 2018, setting a Guinness World Record.

December 10, 2021

Panels, Performances, and a Million-Naira Slam: At the Lagos Poetry Festival 2021

A recap, with photos, of the four-day Lagos International Poetry Festival 2021, staging a comeback post-pandemic lockdown.
Creative Africa
Lagos International Poetry Festival 2021. Photo by LIPFest Media Team (16)

December 2, 2021

Cover Reveal: Arinze Ifeakandu’s God’s Children Are Little Broken Things

The collection of stories about Nigerian gay men, which arrives June 2022, is now available for pre-order.
Otosirieze
Arinze Ifeakandu's short story collection, God's Children Are Little Broken Things. Cover design by Rodrigo Corral Studio. Art by Jah Grey.

November 23, 2021

In Seesaw, Timothy Ogene Satirizes Literary Stereotypes in America

The Nigerian writer and Harvard academic’s second novel is “a refreshing and hugely enjoyable act of literary rebellion.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Timothy Ogene - Seesaw

November 11, 2021

In God of Mercy, Okezie Nwọka Creates a “Folklore of the Uncolonized”

The Nigerian writer’s debut novel, of Igbo fantasy, has been praised as a cross between Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Okezie Nwọka’s God of Mercy

November 9, 2021

From Nigeria to Canada, an Indie Publisher’s Steps

With a planned bookstore in North America, Griots Lounge Publishing is “trying to represent unheard voices,” says founder Bibi Ukonu.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Bibi Ukonu. Photo credit: Griots Lounge.

November 6, 2021

Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia Awarded 2021 Nigeria Prize for Literature

The academic won the $100,000 for her debut novel The Son of the House. Peter Uche Umezurike won the N1,000,000 literary criticism prize.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia. Credit: SprinNG.

November 3, 2021

In Conversation: Uwem Akpan and Helon Habila

Join the Nigerian writers as they discuss Akpan’s new novel New York, My Village.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Uwem Akpan photo © Aaron Mayes

October 27, 2021

Akwaeke Emezi’s Poetry Debut, Content Warning: Everything, Arrives 2022

The novelist’s poems “travel from home to homesickness, tracing desire to surrender and abuse to survival.”
Paula Willie-Okafor
Akwaeke Emezi - Content Warning: Everything

October 26, 2021

Visual Artist Osinachi on NFTs, Afrobeats, and Crypto Literature

Africa’s leading crypto artist, who started as a writer, on his two-dimensional collaboration with music producer Don Jazzy, and the potential for literature.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Osinachi, the cryto artist.

September 20, 2021

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is in a Different Place Now

Her second novel, the monumental Half of a Yellow Sun, was a major step in her singular cultural exceptionality. Fifteen years on, in Open Country Mag’s first sit-down interview, the great writer and careful thinker looks back, reckoning with her private losses and public evolution.
Otosirieze

September 17, 2021

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is on the September 2021 Cover of Open Country Mag

Fifteen years ago, she published Half of a Yellow Sun, her great novel about the Biafran War. In a wide-ranging exclusive sit-down interview with Open Country Mag, she is looking back, feeling the present, and thinking forward.
Otosirieze
Open Country Mag Reissues Cover of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

September 17, 2021

Kunle Afolayan’s Netflix Adaptation of Sefi Atta’s Swallow Slated for October 1

The screenplay is by the filmmaker and the novelist. Singer Niyola makes her film debut as the lead.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Eniola Akinbo (Niyola) as Tolani Ajao in the forthcoming film adaptation of Swallow. Credit: KapHubNews.

September 13, 2021

Inside Agbowó, a Nigerian Literary and Arts Hub

With a literary magazine, an events platform ArtsnChill, and a new online publishing arm, an arts organisation, Agbowó, continues “to hold a space where it is unnecessary to be someone else.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
At an ArtsnChill event, organized by Agbowo, where the poet Dami Ajayi read. Credit: ArtsnChill.

September 6, 2021

A Novelist Entered Literary Curation, Still Honouring Her Feminist Roots

Ukamaka Olisakwe’s novels, including the latest Ogadinma, narrate womanhood in Nigeria. Last year, she started a magazine, Isele, named after her artist grandmother.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Ukamaka Olisakwe. Credit: Ukamaka Olisakwe.

September 4, 2021

Of This Our Country Audiobook to Be Narrated by Weruche Opia and Oseloka Obi

The two actors of Nigerian descent will narrate HarperCollins’ and The Borough Press’ forthcoming collection of essays by Nigerian writers.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Some writers featured in Of This Our Country.

August 28, 2021

The Quramo Festival of Words 2021 Coming in October

The third edition, themed “Transcendence: Words Defying,” will look at how artists explore issues around the pandemic and cope with its harsh impact on the creative industry.
Quramo Publishing
A cross section of the audience at the Quramo Festival of Words 2019. Credit: Quramo.

December 21, 2021

Ukamaka Olisakwe. Credit: Ukamaka Olisakwe.

Ukamaka Olisakwe Wins 2021 SprinNG Women Authors Prize

The novelist and Isele editor’s second novel, Ogadinma, Or: Everything Will Be Alright, will receive marketing worth N200,000.
Paula Willie-Okafor

December 11, 2021

Arinze Ifeakandu’s Debut, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, Dissects Queer Male Intimacy

Arinze Ifeakandu’s Debut, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, Dissects Queer Male Intimacy

Edmund White praised it as “the beginning of a brilliant career.” Adam Haslett called the book “heartbroken but pulsing with life” and Ifeakandu “a major talent.”
Uzoma Ihejirika

December 11, 2021

Ayobami Adebayo's first novel, Stay with Me. From Author's Facebook.

Ayobami Adebayo’s A Spell of Good Things Is a Tale of Two Families

The Nigerian writer’s second novel, the follow-up to 2017’s Stay with Me, will arrive in 2022.
Paula Willie-Okafor

December 11, 2021

Bayode Olawunmi-Treasures read aloud for 120 hours and over five days in 2018, setting a Guinness World Record.

Five Nigerians Seek Guinness World Record with 480-Hour Reading Marathon

“The major goal for me isn’t so much breaking the Guinness records,” one of them, Bayode Olawunmi-Treasures, has said: “it is to make reading great again.”
Uzoma Ihejirika

December 10, 2021

Lagos International Poetry Festival 2021. Photo by LIPFest Media Team (16)

Panels, Performances, and a Million-Naira Slam: At the Lagos Poetry Festival 2021

A recap, with photos, of the four-day Lagos International Poetry Festival 2021, staging a comeback post-pandemic lockdown.
Creative Africa

December 2, 2021

Arinze Ifeakandu's short story collection, God's Children Are Little Broken Things. Cover design by Rodrigo Corral Studio. Art by Jah Grey.

Cover Reveal: Arinze Ifeakandu’s God’s Children Are Little Broken Things

The collection of stories about Nigerian gay men, which arrives June 2022, is now available for pre-order.
Otosirieze

November 23, 2021

Timothy Ogene - Seesaw

In Seesaw, Timothy Ogene Satirizes Literary Stereotypes in America

The Nigerian writer and Harvard academic’s second novel is “a refreshing and hugely enjoyable act of literary rebellion.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

November 11, 2021

Okezie Nwọka’s God of Mercy

In God of Mercy, Okezie Nwọka Creates a “Folklore of the Uncolonized”

The Nigerian writer’s debut novel, of Igbo fantasy, has been praised as a cross between Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Marlon James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf.
Uzoma Ihejirika

November 9, 2021

Bibi Ukonu. Photo credit: Griots Lounge.

From Nigeria to Canada, an Indie Publisher’s Steps

With a planned bookstore in North America, Griots Lounge Publishing is “trying to represent unheard voices,” says founder Bibi Ukonu.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

November 6, 2021

Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia. Credit: SprinNG.

Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia Awarded 2021 Nigeria Prize for Literature

The academic won the $100,000 for her debut novel The Son of the House. Peter Uche Umezurike won the N1,000,000 literary criticism prize.
Uzoma Ihejirika

November 3, 2021

Uwem Akpan photo © Aaron Mayes

In Conversation: Uwem Akpan and Helon Habila

Join the Nigerian writers as they discuss Akpan’s new novel New York, My Village.
Uzoma Ihejirika

October 27, 2021

Akwaeke Emezi - Content Warning: Everything

Akwaeke Emezi’s Poetry Debut, Content Warning: Everything, Arrives 2022

The novelist’s poems “travel from home to homesickness, tracing desire to surrender and abuse to survival.”
Paula Willie-Okafor

October 26, 2021

Osinachi, the cryto artist.

Visual Artist Osinachi on NFTs, Afrobeats, and Crypto Literature

Africa’s leading crypto artist, who started as a writer, on his two-dimensional collaboration with music producer Don Jazzy, and the potential for literature.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

September 20, 2021

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is in a Different Place Now

Her second novel, the monumental Half of a Yellow Sun, was a major step in her singular cultural exceptionality. Fifteen years on, in Open Country Mag’s first sit-down interview, the great writer and careful thinker looks back, reckoning with her private losses and public evolution.
Otosirieze

September 17, 2021

Open Country Mag Reissues Cover of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Is on the September 2021 Cover of Open Country Mag

Fifteen years ago, she published Half of a Yellow Sun, her great novel about the Biafran War. In a wide-ranging exclusive sit-down interview with Open Country Mag, she is looking back, feeling the present, and thinking forward.
Otosirieze

September 17, 2021

Eniola Akinbo (Niyola) as Tolani Ajao in the forthcoming film adaptation of Swallow. Credit: KapHubNews.

Kunle Afolayan’s Netflix Adaptation of Sefi Atta’s Swallow Slated for October 1

The screenplay is by the filmmaker and the novelist. Singer Niyola makes her film debut as the lead.
Paula Willie-Okafor

September 13, 2021

At an ArtsnChill event, organized by Agbowo, where the poet Dami Ajayi read. Credit: ArtsnChill.

Inside Agbowó, a Nigerian Literary and Arts Hub

With a literary magazine, an events platform ArtsnChill, and a new online publishing arm, an arts organisation, Agbowó, continues “to hold a space where it is unnecessary to be someone else.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

September 6, 2021

Ukamaka Olisakwe. Credit: Ukamaka Olisakwe.

A Novelist Entered Literary Curation, Still Honouring Her Feminist Roots

Ukamaka Olisakwe’s novels, including the latest Ogadinma, narrate womanhood in Nigeria. Last year, she started a magazine, Isele, named after her artist grandmother.
Paula Willie-Okafor

September 4, 2021

Some writers featured in Of This Our Country.

Of This Our Country Audiobook to Be Narrated by Weruche Opia and Oseloka Obi

The two actors of Nigerian descent will narrate HarperCollins’ and The Borough Press’ forthcoming collection of essays by Nigerian writers.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

August 28, 2021

A cross section of the audience at the Quramo Festival of Words 2019. Credit: Quramo.

The Quramo Festival of Words 2021 Coming in October

The third edition, themed “Transcendence: Words Defying,” will look at how artists explore issues around the pandemic and cope with its harsh impact on the creative industry.
Quramo Publishing

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