Subscribe

Features

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

Bernardine Evaristo Named President of Royal Society of Literature

The Booker Prize winner will be the second woman to hold the position. She is “one of literature’s most passionate and effective advocates,” said retiring president Marina Warner.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Bernardine Evaristo by Rex.

November 23, 2021

The K & L Prize, for U-25 Writers, Goes to NYSC Member

Mustapha Enesi, a recent graduate and National Youth Service corps member, won for his short story “Kesandu.” The $1,000 prize was this year themed “Madness.”
Paula Willie-Okafor
Mustapha Enesi. Courtesy: K & L Prize.

November 19, 2021

The Winners of the Bank Windhoek Doek Awards for Namibian Literature

Judges for the biennial awards selected Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo in fiction, Pauline Buhle Ndhlovu in poetry, Natasha Uys in nonfiction, and Namafu Amutse in visual art.
Doek! Magazine
The 2021 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards trophy for fiction awarded to Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo. © Doek.

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 9, 2021

Paulina Chiziane Is First Black African Woman to Win Camões Award

The Mozambican author, now retired, takes the €100,000 Lusophone literary honour for her body of work.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Paulina Chiziane. Source: rr.sapo.pt.

November 9, 2021

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr Wins the Prix Goncourt, for The Most Secret Memory of Men

The Senegalese novelist becomes the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to get France’s most prestigious literary prize—exactly 100 years after its first Black winner.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Portrait of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr © Patrice NORMAND/Leextra.

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

Damon Galgut Takes Booker Prize for The Promise

The South African stylist, the fifth African to win, had previously been shortlisted twice. The judges called his winning ninth novel “a strong, unambiguous commentary on the history of South Africa and of humanity itself.”
Otosirieze
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)

October 27, 2021

Tsitsi Dangarembga Wins German Peace Prize 2021

The Zimbabwean author and filmmaker is the first Black woman to receive the €25,000 award from the German Book Trade Association.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Tsitsi Dangarembga accepts her German Peace Prize honour. Credit: dpa.

October 26, 2021

Novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija on Being Jailed and Tortured in Uganda

PEN’s 2021 International Writer of Courage shares his story with Open Country Mag.
Otosirieze
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Photo credit: English PEN.

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.

October 11, 2021

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija Is PEN’s International Writer of Courage 2021

The Ugandan novelist, jailed and tortured last year, was chosen, as is tradition, by the PEN Pinter prize winner, who this year is Tsitsi Dangarembga.
Otosirieze
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Photograph - English PEN

October 8, 2021

Reading Abdulrazak Gurnah: 22 Essays on the 2021 Nobel Prize Winner’s Works

In awarding the Tanzanian novelist, short story writer, critic, and former academic, the Swedish Academy recommends these.
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Abdulrazak Gurnah by Frank Augstein/AP.

October 7, 2021

Tanzanian Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins Nobel Prize in Literature, Becomes Second Black African Laureate

The prolific 73-year-old, whose latest is the novel Afterlives, has been awarded “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Otosirieze
Abdulrazak Gurnah by Mark Pringle.

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.

September 20, 2021

Damon Galgut & Nadifa Mohamed Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

The South African Galgut makes the list for the third time, for The Promise. The Somali Mohamed is chosen for her The Fortune Men.
The Booker Prize Foundation
Damon Galgut. From The Booker Prize.

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 14, 2021

Sulaiman Addonia Wins Golden Afro Artistic Award for Literature

The Belgian awards, which seek to improve cultural diversity in the country, honoured the Eritrean Ethiopian novelist and curator for founding a literary festival and a writing academy for refugees.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Sulaiman Addonia accepts his Golden Afro Artistic Award, flanked onstage by friends. Source: Sulaiman Addonia's Twitter.

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

Bernardine Evaristo by Rex.

Bernardine Evaristo Named President of Royal Society of Literature

The Booker Prize winner will be the second woman to hold the position. She is “one of literature’s most passionate and effective advocates,” said retiring president Marina Warner.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

November 23, 2021

Mustapha Enesi. Courtesy: K & L Prize.

The K & L Prize, for U-25 Writers, Goes to NYSC Member

Mustapha Enesi, a recent graduate and National Youth Service corps member, won for his short story “Kesandu.” The $1,000 prize was this year themed “Madness.”
Paula Willie-Okafor

November 19, 2021

The 2021 Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards trophy for fiction awarded to Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo. © Doek.

The Winners of the Bank Windhoek Doek Awards for Namibian Literature

Judges for the biennial awards selected Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo in fiction, Pauline Buhle Ndhlovu in poetry, Natasha Uys in nonfiction, and Namafu Amutse in visual art.
Doek! Magazine

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 9, 2021

Paulina Chiziane. Source: rr.sapo.pt.

Paulina Chiziane Is First Black African Woman to Win Camões Award

The Mozambican author, now retired, takes the €100,000 Lusophone literary honour for her body of work.
Uzoma Ihejirika

November 9, 2021

Portrait of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr © Patrice NORMAND/Leextra.

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr Wins the Prix Goncourt, for The Most Secret Memory of Men

The Senegalese novelist becomes the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to get France’s most prestigious literary prize—exactly 100 years after its first Black winner.
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

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 Takes Booker Prize for The Promise

The South African stylist, the fifth African to win, had previously been shortlisted twice. The judges called his winning ninth novel “a strong, unambiguous commentary on the history of South Africa and of humanity itself.”
Otosirieze

October 27, 2021

Tsitsi Dangarembga accepts her German Peace Prize honour. Credit: dpa.

Tsitsi Dangarembga Wins German Peace Prize 2021

The Zimbabwean author and filmmaker is the first Black woman to receive the €25,000 award from the German Book Trade Association.
Uzoma Ihejirika

October 26, 2021

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Photo credit: English PEN.

Novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija on Being Jailed and Tortured in Uganda

PEN’s 2021 International Writer of Courage shares his story with Open Country Mag.
Otosirieze

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

October 11, 2021

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Photograph - English PEN

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija Is PEN’s International Writer of Courage 2021

The Ugandan novelist, jailed and tortured last year, was chosen, as is tradition, by the PEN Pinter prize winner, who this year is Tsitsi Dangarembga.
Otosirieze

October 8, 2021

Abdulrazak Gurnah by Frank Augstein/AP.

Reading Abdulrazak Gurnah: 22 Essays on the 2021 Nobel Prize Winner’s Works

In awarding the Tanzanian novelist, short story writer, critic, and former academic, the Swedish Academy recommends these.
Emmanuel Esomnofu

October 7, 2021

Abdulrazak Gurnah by Mark Pringle.

Tanzanian Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins Nobel Prize in Literature, Becomes Second Black African Laureate

The prolific 73-year-old, whose latest is the novel Afterlives, has been awarded “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
Otosirieze

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

September 20, 2021

Damon Galgut. From The Booker Prize.

Damon Galgut & Nadifa Mohamed Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

The South African Galgut makes the list for the third time, for The Promise. The Somali Mohamed is chosen for her The Fortune Men.
The Booker Prize Foundation

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 14, 2021

Sulaiman Addonia accepts his Golden Afro Artistic Award, flanked onstage by friends. Source: Sulaiman Addonia's Twitter.

Sulaiman Addonia Wins Golden Afro Artistic Award for Literature

The Belgian awards, which seek to improve cultural diversity in the country, honoured the Eritrean Ethiopian novelist and curator for founding a literary festival and a writing academy for refugees.
Paula Willie-Okafor

“An ambitious new magazine committed to African literature”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Join 25,000+ subscribers to essential, in-depth stories in African literature, Nigerian film, & culture: inspiring Profiles, incisive reviews, thought-provoking features & conversations that happen nowhere else. It's premium access to the visions of changemakers, from icons to emerging voices. Plus key industry stories from Folio Nigeria by CNN.

We respect your privacy and will never send you Spam or sell your email.

NO, I DON'T CARE ABOUT AFRICAN WHATEVER.

Top