Alfred Msadala, a poet, short story writer and critic from Malawi, launched War Drums Are Beating; discourses off the anthill at the Blantyre Sports Club in the nations capital on Thursday evening. Msadala is the President of the Book Publishers Association of Malawi as well as the chair of the Board of Trustees of Blantyre […]
#naija4binyavanga thanks @lolashoneyin thanks @tonikan11 #getwellsoon #binyavangawainana A photo posted by Victor Ehikhamenor (@victorsozaboy) on Nov 28, 2015 at 9:33am PST The Freedom Park in Lagos, Nigeria was the venue that Nigerian writers celebrated Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina on Saturday afternoon. Binyavanga “Binj” Wainaina the Kenyan writer loved by many is very unwell and […]
Binyavanga Wainaina. This is a name synonymous with some of the best that has come out of Kenya in the last twenty years. He emerged when he won the Caine Prize for African writing in 2002. Some would have taken the money and moved to a bigger apartment and lived off his fame until further […]
The fasted growing literary festival in Zimbabwe, LitFest Harare is set to run in Harare from 26 – 28 November 2015. The second in the series, there will be a series of activities running at the University of Zimbabwe, SAPES Trust, Theatre in the Park, the British Council and at Gallery Delta in Harare. It […]
The Lagos Books and Arts Festival was hosted primarily at the Freedom Park in Lagos from 13th to 15th November. It was an explosion of arts at the park in Victoria Island with exhibitions, panel discussions, book chats, concerts, poetry presentations and a whole lot more. Here are five videos from some of the participants […]
The theme at the Ake Festival 2015 this year was Engaging The Fringe. This meant that there were events that focused on genres and creative endeavor that are not regarded as ‘mainstream’ in spite of their growing popularity and availability. There were panels all through the festival but Friday had some of the most poignant […]
The Miles Morland Foundation has just announced the shortlist for the 2015 Morland Writing Scholarships. These applicants will be whittled down to four on December 14th by the judges Ellah Allfrey who is chair, Olufemi Terry and Muthoni Garland and announced shortly after. The list features a healthy list of twenty one applicants with seven […]
The fifth edition of Kwani? Litfest, a gathering of writers, artists and thinkers from across Africa, takes place every two years happens in Nairobi, Kenya from 1st- 6th December 2015. This year’s festival with the theme, “Beyond the Map of English: Writers in conversation on Language” hosts readings, performances and discussions that explore issues of […]
Wilbur Smith is a South African novelist specialising in historical fiction about the international involvement in Southern Africa across three centuries, seen from the viewpoints of both black and white families. The writer under the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation recently announced prizes that has been broke down in two categories for writers. They include […]
Cat Hellisen is the winner of the Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction 2015. The winner has just been announced at the ongoing Ake Art & Book Festival here in Abeokuta, Nigeria by prize judge Abubakar Adam Ibrahim. The South African writer who won over the judging panel with her story “The Worme […]
Book bloggers are a very important lot in the African literary ecosystem and on Thursday afternoon some of the most well-known ones strutted their stuff in a panel at the #AkeFest2015. Moderated by Kate Haines were bloggers Kinna Likimani of Kinnareads.com and Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed of bookshybooks.blogspot.com with Emmanuel Iduma of online journal Saraba magazine accompanying […]
The young writers who will be taking part in the Writivism workshops in fiction, non-fiction and poetry were announced on Friday afternoon at the Ake Festival happening in Abeokuta, Nigeria. The workshops will be running in Accra, Kampala, Abidjan, Dakar and Goma in 2016 will be facilitated by Yewande Omotoso, Sitawa Namwalie, Mamadou Diallo, Edwige […]
Ayodele Morocco-Clarke moderated “Writing our way out of social inequality in Africa”, one of the first panels at the Ake Festival with writers Siphiwo Mahala, Dilman Dila, and Mona Eltahawy. As she moderated, it became evident that Ayodele had either not prepared enough for the panel or she had been given this assignment to fill […]
Elnathan John is famous for many reasons. His work has been short listed for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2013 and again in 2015. His work has appeared in Hazlitt, Per Contra, the Evergreen Review, the Financial Times and the Caine Prize for African Writing anthology 2013 and 2014. He writes satire for […]
It’s finally here. After months of preparation and all the hype with the tweets and the Facebook posts and the Instagramming and all the rest, the Ake Festival kicked off on Wednesday at the Cultural Centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. For the first time in its three year history, there was an actual opening […]
