Features

September 10, 2022

Arinze Ifeakandu Leads Shortlist for $50,000 Kirkus Prize

The debut Nigerian author’s short story collection, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, has seen him compared to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Zadie Smith and praised by Damon Galgut.

Booker Prize: NoViolet Bulawayo Is the First Woman to Be Shortlisted for Her First Two Novels

With Glory, the Zimbabwean joins Nigeria’s Chigozie Obioma and India’s Rohinton Mistry in an elite group.

The $100,000 NLNG Prize Announces Youngest Ever Shortlist

In an unusual decision that has surprised and delighted observers, the final three poets—Romeo Oriogun, Su’eddie Vershima Agema, and Saddiq Dzukogi—come from the younger generation.

Biyi Bandele, Literary Voice Who Peaked as a Major Nollywood Director, Is Dead at 54

He leaves behind a solid legacy, including the movie Fifty, the Netflix series Blood Sisters, a Fela Kuti documentary, and adaptations of work by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Wole Soyinka.

Troy Onyango on Lolwe & Literary Magazine Publishing in Africa

The platform, founded and edited by the Kenyan writer, is building a conversation between Africa and the Black diaspora. It is his second venture after the defunct Enkare Review.

NoViolet Bulawayo’s Political Allegory Glory on Booker Prize Longlist

It is the Zimbabwean’s second novel to be longlisted, after her 2013 debut We Need New Names reached the shortlist.

Jumi Bello’s Debut Novel Was Dropped for Plagiarism. New Details Show It’s Serial.

An investigative feature in Airmail traced the American Nigerian writer’s history of taking without attribution.

In Conversation with Lan Samantha Chang, Director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop

The influential Chinese American novelist on running the famed program, new African writing, MFAs, literary genres, and her novel The Family Chao. “There is the possibility of creating the conversation that brings in as many voices as possible,” she said of the Workshop.

Otosirieze

July 16, 2022

Racism and an Unsolved Murder: American Novelist Delia Owens’ Past in Zambia Resurfaces

In the US, the 73-year-old’s novel Where the Crawdads Sing has sold 12 million copies and is now a film. In Zambia, she and her family are wanted for questioning for murder.

Paula Willie-Okafor

July 11, 2022

The $100,000 NLNG Prize Longlist a Mix of Young and Veteran Nigerian Poets

The 11 nominees for Africa’s richest literary award, led by rising star Romeo Oriogun, include Iquo DianaAbasi and Su’eddie Vershima Agema—a departure from its tradition of ignoring newer voices.

Emmanuel Esomnofu

July 4, 2022

The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors Announces 2022 Fellows

The initiative, founded by the Nigerian novelist Suyi Davies Okungbowa, offers $500 to writers “to buy time, space, and resources” for their work.

Open Country Mag

June 27, 2022

Where Diriye Osman Draws His Flamboyance From

With his queerness and community as shield, the Somali writer is the rare artist who considers himself art. “We can be as weird and wonderful and brilliant and badass as we want to be,” he says in his first in-depth interview in eight years.

Uzoma Ihejirika

June 7, 2022

“I wanted ‘Love’ to be the narrator”: Roy Udeh-Ubaka on Winning the Gerald Kraak Prize

“Having grown up in a small city in Nigeria where I had to cobble communities—both queer and literary—the value is in becoming a part of this incredible anthology that makes it possible for us all to exist,” said the Nigerian writer.

Uzoma Ihejirika

May 25, 2022

The Gerald Kraak Prize Awarded to Roy Udeh-Ubaka

The Nigerian writer was chosen for his short story, “Until It Doesn’t,” which the judges called “brave fiction that tweaks the possibilities of the short story form.”

Emmanuel Esomnofu

May 17, 2022

The 2022 Gerald Kraak Prize, for Writing on Gender, Social Justice, & Sexuality, Announces Anticipated Shortlist

The 12 finalists, who get $200 each, were chosen by a judging panel chaired by Otosirieze Obi-Young and including Ellah Wakatama and Mark Gevisser.

Open Country Mag

May 13, 2022

The O. Henry Prize Series Opens to African Magazines (Exclusive)

Series Editor Jenny Minton Quigley on celebrating the short story form and the ripple effect of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s guest-editing role.

Otosirieze

May 4, 2022

Ikhide R. Ikheloa Receives James Currey Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award

The Nigerian social critic has blogged extensively on the intersection of African literature and politics.

Uzoma Ihejirika

May 4, 2022

Zimbabwe’s Zibusiso Mpofu Wins 2022 Brunel Prize

The judges praised his “allusive, lyrical poems [which] open a new itinerary in African poetry, drawing in Shona and Mandarin and mapping a journey of the Black body through India, Hong Kong, the Philippines and China.”

Emmanuel Esomnofu

May 4, 2022

Poet Okwudili Nebeolisa Wins Prairie Lights Fiction Contest

“I have always looked for validation for my short stories,” he said of the recognition from the Iowa City bookshop.

Otosirieze

April 29, 2022

Keletso Mopai Owns Her Story and Her Voice

The author of the short story collection If You Keep Digging on activism, the social power of literature, and South Africa’s need for change.

Paula Willie-Okafor

September 10, 2022

Arinze Ifeakandu Leads Shortlist for $50,000 Kirkus Prize

The debut Nigerian author’s short story collection, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, has seen him compared to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Zadie Smith and praised by Damon Galgut.

Emmanuel Esomnofu

September 7, 2022

Booker Prize: NoViolet Bulawayo Is the First Woman to Be Shortlisted for Her First Two Novels

With Glory, the Zimbabwean joins Nigeria’s Chigozie Obioma and India’s Rohinton Mistry in an elite group.

Otosirieze

August 27, 2022

The $100,000 NLNG Prize Announces Youngest Ever Shortlist

In an unusual decision that has surprised and delighted observers, the final three poets—Romeo Oriogun, Su’eddie Vershima Agema, and Saddiq Dzukogi—come from the younger generation.

Uzoma Ihejirika

August 13, 2022

Biyi Bandele, Literary Voice Who Peaked as a Major Nollywood Director, Is Dead at 54

He leaves behind a solid legacy, including the movie Fifty, the Netflix series Blood Sisters, a Fela Kuti documentary, and adaptations of work by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Wole Soyinka.

Paula Willie-Okafor

August 4, 2022

Troy Onyango on Lolwe & Literary Magazine Publishing in Africa

The platform, founded and edited by the Kenyan writer, is building a conversation between Africa and the Black diaspora. It is his second venture after the defunct Enkare Review.

Socrates Mbamalu

July 28, 2022

NoViolet Bulawayo’s Political Allegory Glory on Booker Prize Longlist

It is the Zimbabwean’s second novel to be longlisted, after her 2013 debut We Need New Names reached the shortlist.

Uzoma Ihejirika

July 28, 2022

Jumi Bello’s Debut Novel Was Dropped for Plagiarism. New Details Show It’s Serial.

An investigative feature in Airmail traced the American Nigerian writer’s history of taking without attribution.

Paula Willie-Okafor

July 23, 2022

In Conversation with Lan Samantha Chang, Director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop

Otosirieze

July 16, 2022

Racism and an Unsolved Murder: American Novelist Delia Owens’ Past in Zambia Resurfaces

In the US, the 73-year-old’s novel Where the Crawdads Sing has sold 12 million copies and is now a film. In Zambia, she and her family are wanted for questioning for murder.

Paula Willie-Okafor

July 11, 2022

The $100,000 NLNG Prize Longlist a Mix of Young and Veteran Nigerian Poets

Emmanuel Esomnofu

July 4, 2022

The Literary Laddership for Emerging African Authors Announces 2022 Fellows

The initiative, founded by the Nigerian novelist Suyi Davies Okungbowa, offers $500 to writers “to buy time, space, and resources” for their work.

Open Country Mag

June 27, 2022

Where Diriye Osman Draws His Flamboyance From

Uzoma Ihejirika

June 7, 2022

“I wanted ‘Love’ to be the narrator”: Roy Udeh-Ubaka on Winning the Gerald Kraak Prize

Uzoma Ihejirika

May 25, 2022

The Gerald Kraak Prize Awarded to Roy Udeh-Ubaka

The Nigerian writer was chosen for his short story, “Until It Doesn’t,” which the judges called “brave fiction that tweaks the possibilities of the short story form.”