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May 20, 2021

Margaret Busby to Receive London Book Fair’s Lifetime Achievement Award

The Ghanaian-born editor, who has been called “the doyenne of Black British publishing,” will be presented with the honour by Bernardine Evaristo and Zadie Smith.
Otosirieze
Margaret Busby.

May 13, 2021

Othuke Umukoro Wins Brunel International African Poetry Prize 2021

The judges for the $3,000 prize praised the Nigerian as “a complex poet, with the formal skills to match the weight of the subjects he takes on.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Othuke Umukoro. From Brunel Prize.

May 3, 2021

Akwaeke Emezi’s Romance Novel Bought by Outlier Society in 7-Figure Film Deal

Written last year, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is about a Nigerian artist in love and grief. Outlier Society is Michael B. Jordan’s company.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Akwaeke Emezi by Frances F. Denny.

April 30, 2021

Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom Shortlisted for Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021

The selections, says the chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo, are “gloriously varied and thematically rich . . . and grapple with society’s big issues expressed through thrilling storytelling.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Yaa Gyasi by Cody Pickens for TIME.

April 23, 2021

Jowhor Ile & Adachioma Ezeano Win O. Henry Prizes 2021

Their short stories will appear in The Best Short Stories Anthology 2021, guest-edited and introduced by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Being selected is “a thrill,” Ezeano says.
Ernest Ogunyemi
Jowhor Ile. From Bella Naija.

April 18, 2021

Ladan Osman & Tope Folarin Win Whiting Awards

“Osman’s dazzling and incisive poetry creates vibrant connections between generations of women,” said the committee. “Folarin’s fable-like novel is painful in its examination of the way ready-made beliefs are overlaid onto the minds of children.”
Uzoma Ihejirika
Ladan Osman by Joe Penney.

April 8, 2021

Kemi Alabi’s Manuscript, Against Heaven, Wins Academy of American Poets First Book Award

The American poet Claudia Rankine, who picked it as winner, called it “energetic and brilliant.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Kemi Alabi by Ally Almore.

April 2, 2021

TJ Benson Holds History and Hope

Thirteen years after he started it, his debut novel The Madhouse finally arrives. This chronicle of the ‘90s, set in northern Nigeria, broadens the familiar for the 29-year-old.
Ernest Ogunyemi
TJ Benson by Nelson Apocho.

April 2, 2021

The Making of Songs We Learn from Trees, the First Anthology of Amharic Poetry in English

How Chris Beckett and Alemu Tebeje filled a gap in Ethiopian literature.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Songs We Learn from Trees. From Carcanet Press.

March 31, 2021

Eight Poets Up for 2021 Brunel Prize

“Many of these poets are young, in their 20s, and their voices are fresh, articulate, compelling,” the judges say.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Arao Ameny by Arao Ameny.

March 31, 2021

Ngugi’s The Perfect Nine Is the First Book in an African Language to Make International Booker Shortlist

The revered Kenyan, who writes in Gikuyu, is also the prize’s first nominee as both author and translator of the same book.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Ngugi wa Thiong'o by Steve Zylius/UCI.

March 27, 2021

Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian Novelist and Feminist Icon, Passes on at 89

She was known for her assertive views on politics and women’s rights, which put her at risk. “Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies,” she wrote after release from prison.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Nawal El Saadawi. Photo: David Degner/Getty Images. From the Guardian.

March 19, 2021

Mark Gevisser’s Long Mission of Queer Visibility

In his most recent book, The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers, the South African journalist and activist shows a world in redescription. And he has been doing that for decades, engaging power and who wields it and who is abused by it.
Otosirieze
Mark Gevisser (R) and Tiwonge "Aunty" Chimbalanga (L) at the Khlulisa Community Garden, where she works. Credit: Ellen Elmendorp.

March 16, 2021

Groundbreaking Nebula Awards Shortlists Include 3 Africans

With his story in Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki becomes the first Africa-based writer to be shortlisted. “It’s something you never realised that it’s possible,” he said.
Ernest Ogunyemi
Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora.

March 15, 2021

Romeo Oriogun & Sulaiman Addonia Shortlisted for 2021 Lambda Awards

The Nigerian poet’s Sacrament of Bodies is nominated in the Gay Poetry category, & the Eritrean-Ethiopian novelist’s Silence Is My Mother Tongue is in Bisexual Fiction.
Otosirieze
Romeo Oriogun by Romeo Oriogun.

March 13, 2021

Tsitsi Dangarembga on Why Young Africans Need Allies

“Because they haven’t been constrained by the world, their imagination is much more agile,” said the Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, who was on the December 2020 cover of Open Country Mag.
Ada Nnadi
Tsitsi Dangarembga. From Tsitsi Dangarembga.

March 12, 2021

Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom Longlisted for Women’s Prize for Fiction

“[It] had me in tears, wailing, the most emotional I’ve felt after reading a book, for a long, long time,” said one of the judges.
Ernest Ogunyemi
Yaa Gyasi's Transcendent Kingdom by Books Upstairs.

March 9, 2021

Sefi Atta’s Swallow Is Being Adapted for Netflix by Kunle Afolayan, with Niyola as Lead

It will be the first screenwriting credit for the Nigerian novelist, who co-wrote with Afolayan.
Otosirieze
Sefi Atta. From Sefi Atta's Facebook page.

March 5, 2021

The Afritondo Short Story Prize Shortlist

“This year’s short story prize was centred on Identity,” the organisers said. “The judges selected stories that were original, well crafted, and reflected the theme of the prize.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Yellow Means Stay, the Afritondo Prize 2020 anthology.

March 5, 2021

Rasaq Malik Gbolahan & Funmi Gaji on Their New Poetry Books from Konya Shamsrumi

Gbolahan’s The Other Names of Grief, which “shows us the way to survival,” and Gaji’s The Script of Bruises, about “space and belonging,” are now available in Nigeria.
Ernest Ogunyemi
Rasaq Malik Gbolahan's The Other Names of Grief; from Konya Shamsrumi.

May 20, 2021

Margaret Busby.

Margaret Busby to Receive London Book Fair’s Lifetime Achievement Award

The Ghanaian-born editor, who has been called “the doyenne of Black British publishing,” will be presented with the honour by Bernardine Evaristo and Zadie Smith.
Otosirieze

May 13, 2021

Othuke Umukoro. From Brunel Prize.

Othuke Umukoro Wins Brunel International African Poetry Prize 2021

The judges for the $3,000 prize praised the Nigerian as “a complex poet, with the formal skills to match the weight of the subjects he takes on.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

May 3, 2021

Akwaeke Emezi by Frances F. Denny.

Akwaeke Emezi’s Romance Novel Bought by Outlier Society in 7-Figure Film Deal

Written last year, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is about a Nigerian artist in love and grief. Outlier Society is Michael B. Jordan’s company.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

April 30, 2021

Yaa Gyasi by Cody Pickens for TIME.

Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom Shortlisted for Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021

The selections, says the chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo, are “gloriously varied and thematically rich . . . and grapple with society’s big issues expressed through thrilling storytelling.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

April 23, 2021

Jowhor Ile. From Bella Naija.

Jowhor Ile & Adachioma Ezeano Win O. Henry Prizes 2021

Their short stories will appear in The Best Short Stories Anthology 2021, guest-edited and introduced by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Being selected is “a thrill,” Ezeano says.
Ernest Ogunyemi

April 18, 2021

Ladan Osman by Joe Penney.

Ladan Osman & Tope Folarin Win Whiting Awards

“Osman’s dazzling and incisive poetry creates vibrant connections between generations of women,” said the committee. “Folarin’s fable-like novel is painful in its examination of the way ready-made beliefs are overlaid onto the minds of children.”
Uzoma Ihejirika

April 8, 2021

Kemi Alabi by Ally Almore.

Kemi Alabi’s Manuscript, Against Heaven, Wins Academy of American Poets First Book Award

The American poet Claudia Rankine, who picked it as winner, called it “energetic and brilliant.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

April 2, 2021

TJ Benson by Nelson Apocho.

TJ Benson Holds History and Hope

Thirteen years after he started it, his debut novel The Madhouse finally arrives. This chronicle of the ‘90s, set in northern Nigeria, broadens the familiar for the 29-year-old.
Ernest Ogunyemi

April 2, 2021

Songs We Learn from Trees. From Carcanet Press.

The Making of Songs We Learn from Trees, the First Anthology of Amharic Poetry in English

How Chris Beckett and Alemu Tebeje filled a gap in Ethiopian literature.
Uzoma Ihejirika

March 31, 2021

Arao Ameny by Arao Ameny.

Eight Poets Up for 2021 Brunel Prize

“Many of these poets are young, in their 20s, and their voices are fresh, articulate, compelling,” the judges say.
Paula Willie-Okafor

March 31, 2021

Ngugi wa Thiong'o by Steve Zylius/UCI.

Ngugi’s The Perfect Nine Is the First Book in an African Language to Make International Booker Shortlist

The revered Kenyan, who writes in Gikuyu, is also the prize’s first nominee as both author and translator of the same book.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

March 27, 2021

Nawal El Saadawi. Photo: David Degner/Getty Images. From the Guardian.

Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian Novelist and Feminist Icon, Passes on at 89

She was known for her assertive views on politics and women’s rights, which put her at risk. “Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies,” she wrote after release from prison.
Paula Willie-Okafor

March 19, 2021

Mark Gevisser (R) and Tiwonge "Aunty" Chimbalanga (L) at the Khlulisa Community Garden, where she works. Credit: Ellen Elmendorp.

Mark Gevisser’s Long Mission of Queer Visibility

In his most recent book, The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers, the South African journalist and activist shows a world in redescription. And he has been doing that for decades, engaging power and who wields it and who is abused by it.
Otosirieze

March 16, 2021

Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora.

Groundbreaking Nebula Awards Shortlists Include 3 Africans

With his story in Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki becomes the first Africa-based writer to be shortlisted. “It’s something you never realised that it’s possible,” he said.
Ernest Ogunyemi

March 15, 2021

Romeo Oriogun by Romeo Oriogun.

Romeo Oriogun & Sulaiman Addonia Shortlisted for 2021 Lambda Awards

The Nigerian poet’s Sacrament of Bodies is nominated in the Gay Poetry category, & the Eritrean-Ethiopian novelist’s Silence Is My Mother Tongue is in Bisexual Fiction.
Otosirieze

March 13, 2021

Tsitsi Dangarembga. From Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Tsitsi Dangarembga on Why Young Africans Need Allies

“Because they haven’t been constrained by the world, their imagination is much more agile,” said the Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, who was on the December 2020 cover of Open Country Mag.
Ada Nnadi

March 12, 2021

Yaa Gyasi's Transcendent Kingdom by Books Upstairs.

Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom Longlisted for Women’s Prize for Fiction

“[It] had me in tears, wailing, the most emotional I’ve felt after reading a book, for a long, long time,” said one of the judges.
Ernest Ogunyemi

March 9, 2021

Sefi Atta. From Sefi Atta's Facebook page.

Sefi Atta’s Swallow Is Being Adapted for Netflix by Kunle Afolayan, with Niyola as Lead

It will be the first screenwriting credit for the Nigerian novelist, who co-wrote with Afolayan.
Otosirieze

March 5, 2021

Yellow Means Stay, the Afritondo Prize 2020 anthology.

The Afritondo Short Story Prize Shortlist

“This year’s short story prize was centred on Identity,” the organisers said. “The judges selected stories that were original, well crafted, and reflected the theme of the prize.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

March 5, 2021

Rasaq Malik Gbolahan's The Other Names of Grief; from Konya Shamsrumi.

Rasaq Malik Gbolahan & Funmi Gaji on Their New Poetry Books from Konya Shamsrumi

Gbolahan’s The Other Names of Grief, which “shows us the way to survival,” and Gaji’s The Script of Bruises, about “space and belonging,” are now available in Nigeria.
Ernest Ogunyemi

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