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April 6, 2022

Romeo Oriogun Wrested Poetry from Pain

From the streets of Benin City to The New Yorker, a young working-class Nigerian writer scaled obstacles and became a defining voice in African poetry.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Romeo Oriogun for Open Country Mag.

April 4, 2022

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & Pemi Aguda Win 2022 O. Henry Prizes

Adichie, who guest-edited the 2021 anthology and is winning for the third time, was selected for her story “Zikora.”
Otosirieze
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie by Manny Jefferson.

March 31, 2022

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Emmanuel Iduma, & Siphiwe Ndlovu Win Windham-Campbell Prizes

Each of the 8 winners will receive $165,000.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Tsitsi Dangarembga. By Hannah Mertz in The Guardian

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.

March 29, 2022

I.S. Jones Named Editor-in-Chief of Frontier Poetry

“My mission,” said the Nigerian American poet, “is to continue giving a space for both emerging writers, international writers, and writers negotiating themselves between multiple languages.”
Otosirieze
I.S. Jones by Nicholas Nichols.

March 27, 2022

Mary-Alice Daniel Wins Yale Younger Poets Prize

Her manuscript, Mass for Shut-Ins, was praised for its “potent incantations” and called “Flowers of Evil for the 21st century.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Mary Alice-Daniel. Credit: news.yale.edu.

March 27, 2022

Isele Magazine Announces Shortlists for Prizes

Finalists include poets Romeo Oriogun, Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, and Itiola Jones, and short story writers Troy Onyango and Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Isele Magazine's "The Woman Issue."

March 22, 2022

The Brunel Prize Announces 2022 Shortlist of 7 Poets

The judges praised the finalists as “African voices liberated from prescriptions of form and ideas.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Adedayo Agarau, the new editor-in-chief of Agbowo Magazine.

March 11, 2022

Mary Watson Wins Philida Literary Award

It goes to “an oeuvre of literary excellence” in South Africa.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Mary Watson. From writersandartists.co.uk.

March 8, 2022

A Netflix Adaptation for Tola Okogwu’s YA Novel, Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

The production will be by Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and David Oyelowo’s Yoruba Saxon.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
tola okogwu

February 23, 2022

Doek! Partners with UEA’s International Chair of Creative Writing for Literary Festival in Namibia

The Doek! Literary Festival will take place from 21-23 April 2022.
Doek! Magazine
Doek Magazine Issue 7. Cover image by Collective For Black Iranians.

February 14, 2022

28 Writers Go Deep into Love, in Art and Life

For Valentine’s Day, we asked 28 writers—deep readers and consumers of art—to share the literary, cinematic, musical, and life stories that affect them. They opened up beautifully.
Open Country Mag
A still from the film Rafiki, directed by Wanuri Kahiu and based on Monica Arac de Nyeko's short story Jambula Tree

February 12, 2022

The Methods of Damon Galgut

How the South African naturalist, a prodigy, innovated major work on masculinity, race, memory, and time—and then, at the tip of his 40-year career, came the Booker Prize.
Otosirieze
Damon Galgut by Michaela Verity

February 10, 2022

Damon Galgut Is on the February 2022 Cover of Open Country Mag

In his 40th year as a writer, last year’s Booker Prize winner talks to Open Country Mag about his artistic process, and his novel The Promise.
Otosirieze
Open Country Mag Reissues Cover of Damon Galgut

February 10, 2022

Damon Galgut Is a Finalist for the 2022 Rathbones Folio Prize

The South African stylist, just announced as the February 2022 cover star of Open Country Mag, makes the shortlist with his Booker Prize-winning novel The Promise.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Author Damon Galgut at the 2021 Booker Prize Awards Ceremony in London, Wednesday Nov. 3, 2021. South African writer Damon Galgut wins the Booker Prize for fiction for “The Promise”. (David Parry/PA via AP)

February 10, 2022

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Wins $50,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature

The judges called the Kenyan author a “transformative figure in African Literature.”
Paula Willie-Okafor
Ngugi wa Thiong'o by Steve Zylius/UCI.

February 8, 2022

Arinze Ifeakandu, Eloghosa Osunde, TJ Benson Shortlisted for The Future Awards Africa Prize for Art & Literature

The three have books forthcoming this year.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Arinze Ifeakandu by Bec Stupak Diop.

February 7, 2022

Over 100 Writers Sign Open Letter on Missing Rwandan Poet Innocent Bahati

Ben Okri, J.M. Coetzee, Margaret Atwood, and Michael Ondaatje are among those urging Rwandan President Paul Kagame to intervene in the case.
Otosirieze
The poet Innocent Bahati has been missing in Rwanda for a year now.

February 5, 2022

Leila Chatti Wins Luschei Prize for African Poetry

The Tunisian American poet was selected for the APBF prize for her collection Deluge.
Otosirieze
Leila Chatti. Credit: Copper Canyon Press.

February 5, 2022

PEN Prize Winner Kakwenza Rukirabashaija Brutalized Again in Uganda

He was first arrested in 2020, and last year shared his story in an interview with us. He was rearrested this new year.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Photograph - English PEN

April 6, 2022

Romeo Oriogun for Open Country Mag.

Romeo Oriogun Wrested Poetry from Pain

From the streets of Benin City to The New Yorker, a young working-class Nigerian writer scaled obstacles and became a defining voice in African poetry.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

April 4, 2022

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie by Manny Jefferson.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & Pemi Aguda Win 2022 O. Henry Prizes

Adichie, who guest-edited the 2021 anthology and is winning for the third time, was selected for her story “Zikora.”
Otosirieze

March 31, 2022

Tsitsi Dangarembga. By Hannah Mertz in The Guardian

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Emmanuel Iduma, & Siphiwe Ndlovu Win Windham-Campbell Prizes

Each of the 8 winners will receive $165,000.
Uzoma Ihejirika

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

March 29, 2022

I.S. Jones by Nicholas Nichols.

I.S. Jones Named Editor-in-Chief of Frontier Poetry

“My mission,” said the Nigerian American poet, “is to continue giving a space for both emerging writers, international writers, and writers negotiating themselves between multiple languages.”
Otosirieze

March 27, 2022

Mary Alice-Daniel. Credit: news.yale.edu.

Mary-Alice Daniel Wins Yale Younger Poets Prize

Her manuscript, Mass for Shut-Ins, was praised for its “potent incantations” and called “Flowers of Evil for the 21st century.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

March 27, 2022

Isele Magazine's "The Woman Issue."

Isele Magazine Announces Shortlists for Prizes

Finalists include poets Romeo Oriogun, Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, and Itiola Jones, and short story writers Troy Onyango and Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo.
Paula Willie-Okafor

March 22, 2022

Adedayo Agarau, the new editor-in-chief of Agbowo Magazine.

The Brunel Prize Announces 2022 Shortlist of 7 Poets

The judges praised the finalists as “African voices liberated from prescriptions of form and ideas.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

March 11, 2022

Mary Watson. From writersandartists.co.uk.

Mary Watson Wins Philida Literary Award

It goes to “an oeuvre of literary excellence” in South Africa.
Paula Willie-Okafor

March 8, 2022

tola okogwu

A Netflix Adaptation for Tola Okogwu’s YA Novel, Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

The production will be by Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and David Oyelowo’s Yoruba Saxon.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

February 23, 2022

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

Doek! Partners with UEA’s International Chair of Creative Writing for Literary Festival in Namibia

The Doek! Literary Festival will take place from 21-23 April 2022.
Doek! Magazine

February 14, 2022

A still from the film Rafiki, directed by Wanuri Kahiu and based on Monica Arac de Nyeko's short story Jambula Tree

28 Writers Go Deep into Love, in Art and Life

For Valentine’s Day, we asked 28 writers—deep readers and consumers of art—to share the literary, cinematic, musical, and life stories that affect them. They opened up beautifully.
Open Country Mag

February 12, 2022

Damon Galgut by Michaela Verity

The Methods of Damon Galgut

How the South African naturalist, a prodigy, innovated major work on masculinity, race, memory, and time—and then, at the tip of his 40-year career, came the Booker Prize.
Otosirieze

February 10, 2022

Open Country Mag Reissues Cover of Damon Galgut

Damon Galgut Is on the February 2022 Cover of Open Country Mag

In his 40th year as a writer, last year’s Booker Prize winner talks to Open Country Mag about his artistic process, and his novel The Promise.
Otosirieze

February 10, 2022

Author Damon Galgut at the 2021 Booker Prize Awards Ceremony in London, Wednesday Nov. 3, 2021. South African writer Damon Galgut wins the Booker Prize for fiction for “The Promise”. (David Parry/PA via AP)

Damon Galgut Is a Finalist for the 2022 Rathbones Folio Prize

The South African stylist, just announced as the February 2022 cover star of Open Country Mag, makes the shortlist with his Booker Prize-winning novel The Promise.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

February 10, 2022

Ngugi wa Thiong'o by Steve Zylius/UCI.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Wins $50,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature

The judges called the Kenyan author a “transformative figure in African Literature.”
Paula Willie-Okafor

February 8, 2022

Arinze Ifeakandu by Bec Stupak Diop.

Arinze Ifeakandu, Eloghosa Osunde, TJ Benson Shortlisted for The Future Awards Africa Prize for Art & Literature

The three have books forthcoming this year.
Paula Willie-Okafor

February 7, 2022

The poet Innocent Bahati has been missing in Rwanda for a year now.

Over 100 Writers Sign Open Letter on Missing Rwandan Poet Innocent Bahati

Ben Okri, J.M. Coetzee, Margaret Atwood, and Michael Ondaatje are among those urging Rwandan President Paul Kagame to intervene in the case.
Otosirieze

February 5, 2022

Leila Chatti. Credit: Copper Canyon Press.

Leila Chatti Wins Luschei Prize for African Poetry

The Tunisian American poet was selected for the APBF prize for her collection Deluge.
Otosirieze

February 5, 2022

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Photograph - English PEN

PEN Prize Winner Kakwenza Rukirabashaija Brutalized Again in Uganda

He was first arrested in 2020, and last year shared his story in an interview with us. He was rearrested this new year.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

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