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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 8, 2021

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Angela Merkel Talk Politics, Feminism, and Stories

The opening event at the Theater der Welt Festival in Germany saw the cultural icon and the European leader share experiences on race, fashion, and difference.
Otosirieze
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Credit: The Guardian.

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.

September 1, 2021

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards: The Shortlist

The list “features some of the most resonant fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art from Namibia.”
Doek! Magazine
Doek! Issue 6 cover.

August 24, 2021

AKO Caine Prize Winner Meron Hadero on Language, Musicality, and How “Writing Asks for Empathy”

“If we are to make our characters feel human and real, they require our care,” she says of her story “The Street Sweep.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Meron Hadero. Credit: Meron Hadero.

August 20, 2021

Introduction to 20.35 Africa Vol. IV: “The Opportunity to Read African Poetry Along Language Aesthetics”

“What we bring is a seminal thinking of poetry,” writes the poetry series’ editor-in-chief Ebenezer Agu. “We must recognize the beauty and complexity of this transcreation.”
20.35 Africa
20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Vol. IV.

August 5, 2021

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards: The Longlist

Namibia’s first literary magazine announces the country’s first literary awards.
Doek! Magazine
The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards logo.

August 5, 2021

Kwame Dawes’ African Poetry Digital Portal Gets $750,000 Mellon Foundation Grant

It will enhance the next phase of the Portal, “expanding research and scholarship relating to African poetry and joining with other institutions to create a digital collections hub that will give access to materials held by institutions worldwide.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu
Kwame Dawes and Lorna Dawes. Photo by Annie Albin / University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

July 27, 2021

The Booker Prize 2021 Longlist

Three Africans are in the running this year: Damon Galgut for The Promise, Nadifa Mohamed for The Fortune Men, and Karen Jennings for An Island.
Ernest Ogunyemi

July 26, 2021

Meron Hadero Wins AKO Caine Prize, for “Beautiful Tale” of Ethiopia’s “Young, Ingenuous Generation”

The writer, previously shortlisted for the £10,000 award in 2019, is the first winner from her country. Her story, “The Street Sweep,” “negotiates the imported power dynamics of foreign aid in Addis Ababa.”
The AKO Caine Prize
Meron Hadero. Credit: Meron Hadero.

July 26, 2021

The Borough Press Acquires Adorah Nworah’s Debut, House Woman

The book, a tribute to horror stories, arrives in 2022.
The Borough Press
Adorah Nworah. From law.temple.edu.

July 8, 2021

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki Shortlisted for Theodore Sturgeon Award 2021

The Nigeria-based writer and editor is shortlisted for his story “Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon,” which has been recognized by a slew of international science fiction awards in the U.S. and the U.K.
Ernest Ogunyemi
OGHENECHOVWE DONALD EKPEKI.

July 2, 2021

Teju Cole Is on the July 2021 Cover of Open Country Mag

In the first longform profile of him in an online African publication, we follow the great writer’s reinventive journey in fiction, nonfiction, and photography, to mark the 10th anniversary of his debut novel Open City.
Otosirieze
Open Country Mag Reissues Cover of Teju Cole

July 2, 2021

Chudor House Options Movie Rights to Uduak Akpabio Umoren & Akbar Hussain Novels

In Umoren’s Impostor Alert!, two women meet on a bus heading for Lagos. In Hussain’s forthcoming Truth is a Flightless Bird, two halves of Nairobi fight for superiority.
Narrative Landscape Press
Akbar (Aki) Hussain. Credit: Narrative Landscape Press.

July 2, 2021

The James Currey Prize for Literature: The Shortlist

Five writers are in the running for the £1,000 prize money and a publication deal.
James Currey Prize for Literature
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, both from Heinemann's African Writers Series, edited by Achebe and published by James Currey. Credit: Brown Bag Books.

June 25, 2021

Cameroon’s New Literary Generation Comes of Age, as Anglophone Crisis Deepens

The central African country’s two politico-cultural systems clashed from the beginning. But in the last 10 years, literary production increased and a conscious community formed, and at the heart of it is Bakwa Magazine.
Otosirieze
Cameroonian writers (L-R): Howard Meh-Buh Maximus, Louisa Lum, Nkiacha Atemnkeng, Nelson Kamkuimo, Monique Kwachou; Dzekashu MacViban, Nana Nkweti.

June 25, 2021

Revel, Again, in the Beautiful Absurd

On how to joyfully read, and love, a poem: “If you are one of those who don’t get poetry, I have a song for you.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Chapbooks from African Poetry Book Fund's box set Nne. Credit: Kimberly Ann Southwick. From blog.pshares.org.

June 21, 2021

Kwame Dawes & Boris Boubacar Diop Are Finalists for Neustadt International Prize for Literature

The $50,000 award, given by the University of Oklahoma-based World Literature Today, has historically predicted future Nobel Prize in Literature winners.
Otosirieze
Kwame Dawes by Chris Abani.

June 18, 2021

Bakwa Magazine at 10: Celebrating a Decade of Disruption

We are hosting events, podcasts, and readings in Yaounde, London, and Berlin. Consolidated and recomposed back issues (1-8) will be available for free, and issues 9-10 for sale in physical and eBook formats.
Bakwa Magazine
Bakwa 10: Family Politricks. Credit: Bakwa Magazine.

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 8, 2021

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Credit: The Guardian.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Angela Merkel Talk Politics, Feminism, and Stories

The opening event at the Theater der Welt Festival in Germany saw the cultural icon and the European leader share experiences on race, fashion, and difference.
Otosirieze

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

September 1, 2021

Doek! Issue 6 cover.

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards: The Shortlist

The list “features some of the most resonant fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art from Namibia.”
Doek! Magazine

August 24, 2021

Meron Hadero. Credit: Meron Hadero.

AKO Caine Prize Winner Meron Hadero on Language, Musicality, and How “Writing Asks for Empathy”

“If we are to make our characters feel human and real, they require our care,” she says of her story “The Street Sweep.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

August 20, 2021

20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Vol. IV.

Introduction to 20.35 Africa Vol. IV: “The Opportunity to Read African Poetry Along Language Aesthetics”

“What we bring is a seminal thinking of poetry,” writes the poetry series’ editor-in-chief Ebenezer Agu. “We must recognize the beauty and complexity of this transcreation.”
20.35 Africa

August 5, 2021

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards logo.

The Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards: The Longlist

Namibia’s first literary magazine announces the country’s first literary awards.
Doek! Magazine

August 5, 2021

Kwame Dawes and Lorna Dawes. Photo by Annie Albin / University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Kwame Dawes’ African Poetry Digital Portal Gets $750,000 Mellon Foundation Grant

It will enhance the next phase of the Portal, “expanding research and scholarship relating to African poetry and joining with other institutions to create a digital collections hub that will give access to materials held by institutions worldwide.”
Emmanuel Esomnofu

July 27, 2021

The Booker Prize 2021 Longlist

Three Africans are in the running this year: Damon Galgut for The Promise, Nadifa Mohamed for The Fortune Men, and Karen Jennings for An Island.
Ernest Ogunyemi

July 26, 2021

Meron Hadero. Credit: Meron Hadero.

Meron Hadero Wins AKO Caine Prize, for “Beautiful Tale” of Ethiopia’s “Young, Ingenuous Generation”

The writer, previously shortlisted for the £10,000 award in 2019, is the first winner from her country. Her story, “The Street Sweep,” “negotiates the imported power dynamics of foreign aid in Addis Ababa.”
The AKO Caine Prize

July 26, 2021

Adorah Nworah. From law.temple.edu.

The Borough Press Acquires Adorah Nworah’s Debut, House Woman

The book, a tribute to horror stories, arrives in 2022.
The Borough Press

July 8, 2021

OGHENECHOVWE DONALD EKPEKI.

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki Shortlisted for Theodore Sturgeon Award 2021

The Nigeria-based writer and editor is shortlisted for his story “Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon,” which has been recognized by a slew of international science fiction awards in the U.S. and the U.K.
Ernest Ogunyemi

July 2, 2021

Open Country Mag Reissues Cover of Teju Cole

Teju Cole Is on the July 2021 Cover of Open Country Mag

In the first longform profile of him in an online African publication, we follow the great writer’s reinventive journey in fiction, nonfiction, and photography, to mark the 10th anniversary of his debut novel Open City.
Otosirieze

July 2, 2021

Akbar (Aki) Hussain. Credit: Narrative Landscape Press.

Chudor House Options Movie Rights to Uduak Akpabio Umoren & Akbar Hussain Novels

In Umoren’s Impostor Alert!, two women meet on a bus heading for Lagos. In Hussain’s forthcoming Truth is a Flightless Bird, two halves of Nairobi fight for superiority.
Narrative Landscape Press

July 2, 2021

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, both from Heinemann's African Writers Series, edited by Achebe and published by James Currey. Credit: Brown Bag Books.

The James Currey Prize for Literature: The Shortlist

Five writers are in the running for the £1,000 prize money and a publication deal.
James Currey Prize for Literature

June 25, 2021

Cameroonian writers (L-R): Howard Meh-Buh Maximus, Louisa Lum, Nkiacha Atemnkeng, Nelson Kamkuimo, Monique Kwachou; Dzekashu MacViban, Nana Nkweti.

Cameroon’s New Literary Generation Comes of Age, as Anglophone Crisis Deepens

The central African country’s two politico-cultural systems clashed from the beginning. But in the last 10 years, literary production increased and a conscious community formed, and at the heart of it is Bakwa Magazine.
Otosirieze

June 25, 2021

Chapbooks from African Poetry Book Fund's box set Nne. Credit: Kimberly Ann Southwick. From blog.pshares.org.

Revel, Again, in the Beautiful Absurd

On how to joyfully read, and love, a poem: “If you are one of those who don’t get poetry, I have a song for you.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

June 21, 2021

Kwame Dawes by Chris Abani.

Kwame Dawes & Boris Boubacar Diop Are Finalists for Neustadt International Prize for Literature

The $50,000 award, given by the University of Oklahoma-based World Literature Today, has historically predicted future Nobel Prize in Literature winners.
Otosirieze

June 18, 2021

Bakwa 10: Family Politricks. Credit: Bakwa Magazine.

Bakwa Magazine at 10: Celebrating a Decade of Disruption

We are hosting events, podcasts, and readings in Yaounde, London, and Berlin. Consolidated and recomposed back issues (1-8) will be available for free, and issues 9-10 for sale in physical and eBook formats.
Bakwa Magazine

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— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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