Interviews

In this excerpt from Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s Between Starshine and Clay, the Nobel laureate and his friend Henry Louis Gates, Jr. remember another friend, the late Toni Morrison. “Those who have experienced genuine friendship should appreciate how very lucky they are,” he said. “It’s almost a mystical thing.”

Chinny Ukata and Astrid Madimba on how their “conversational approach to the book and podcast allows us to reach audiences who wouldn’t typically engage with such content.”

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.

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

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.”

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

“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.

The Kenyan writer tells us her motivations and approach to teaching writing.

Shortlisted for his first two novels, The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities, the Nigerian writer tells us what the prize means to him and what he will look out for on the panel.

. . . by resisting the narrative that Africa can only be ground zero for the violation and destruction of queer persons.

Festival Director Teniola Tayo tells us about the festival’s mission, the 2020 edition, and projections for the future.