The Speech House International, initiators of Grill-And-Read programme, announced a call for nominations for the inaugural G&R Annual Readers’ Awards (GaRARA) on 26th January 2016. The awards seek to recognise the contributions of the reading community to the socioeconomic development of the nation. The awards also recognises that readers occupy a position of influence in […]
Nigerian visual artist, writer, and photographer Victor Ehikhamenor and South African theatre director, writer, and performance poet Koleka Putuma will share a stage at the Goethe in Kenya this March. Something is happening in Kenya’s capital as more writers and poets from across the continent come through to showcase their work to an audience hungry […]
In the continuation of our new series Friday Reads that we started with Paradise Within By Noo Saro-Wiwa we introduce a new long read. This Friday we introduce you to Johannesburg, South Africa resident Sydney Majoko’s new book The Webs We Weave which recently came into the market. Our long read is from Man of […]
In the first of our Throwback Thursday segment here at JamesMurua.com, we shed a light on Kenyan writer and Dr Margaret Ogola. Dr Margaret Atieno Ogola who was a Kenyan paediatrician and the creative force behind the novel The River and the Source, and its sequel, I Swear by Apollo. The River and the Source […]
Three writers, from Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria have arrived Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria as the first set of the 2017 Ebedi International Writers Residency Program. They are Peter Ngila, TJ Benson, and Francis Grant Kwesi Gbormittah. The Ebedi International Writers Residency Program is a private initiative for creative writers wishing to complete their works in […]
Buchi Emecheta the author of numerous novels passed away in London, UK on January 25th 2017. Tributes from all over the African literary community have been shared on social media. Florence Onyebuchi “Buchi” Emecheta OBE (21 July 1944 – 25 January 2017) was a Nigerian novelist, based in Britain since 1960,[1] who had also written […]
The books to be read by students in Kenyans were unveiled by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development on 16th January 2017. In Kenya, the publishing industry suffers from a unique problem. The whole fraternity of book people allocate their best editors, writers, lobbyists and the like to ensure that their books are considered in […]
PEN America announced the finalists for the 2017 PEN America Literary Awards in several categories where US$315,000 is awarded. Those in the running include Petina Gappah, Teju Cole, Yaa Gyasi, Helen Oyeyemi, and Abdellatif Laâbi. PEN American hands out awards in very many categories of writing. The categories that interest us are the PEN/Jean Stein […]
Here is a list of African literary festivals you can attend in 2017. 2016 promised and delivered to literary feast of festivals in all corners of the continent. Writers and readers met and interacted in many different venues in many types of environments. Some like Abantu Book Festival were new while the older ones like […]
Peter Abrahams who was famous in many countries for his 1946 book Mine Boy has passed away. The South African born author was 97. Abrahams was a South African-born Jamaican novelist, journalist and political commentator. In Kenya at least, he was a legend for his third novel Mine Boy. Set in South Africa, the novel […]
Jalada Africa, a Pan-African collective, is pleased to announce the inaugural Jalada Mobile Literary & Arts Festival 2017. The festival will happen in 12 towns from 3-31st March 2017. Jalada Africa was formed in 2013 by writers from Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Africa, and currently comprises of writers and artists, of African origin, […]
Lesego Rampolokeng, Zukiswa Wanner, and Moagi Modise were the featured guest lecturers at Sol Plaatje Summer Writing School that happened from January 9 – 13, 2017. Sol Plaatje, pronounced Sol Plackie, was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. He was a founder member and first General Secretary of the South African […]
The International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2017 have announced their longlist for this year’s best book in Arab writing this year and six Africans made the cut. They are Yassin Adnan, Najwa Binshatwan, Amir Tag Elsir, Abdul-Kareem Jouaity, Mohammed Abdel Nabi, and Youssef Rakha. The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) has today, Monday 16 […]
The Storymoja Festival 2017 returns to its ancestral home in Nairobi after a safari to Accra in 2016 as it celebrates a decade. The organisers have announced the new dates of one of East Africa’s most famous literary festivals; September 27 – October 1, 2017. It’s been a decade already folks. It was at the […]
The Goethe Institut in Lagos and Yaounde in collaboration with Saraba Magazine and Bakwa Magazine invites applications for participation in a mentored series of exchanges and workshops on creative non-fiction. Though Cameroon and Nigeria are neighbors and share a lot of similar cultural values, this potential has not been exploited for the collaborative knowledge and […]
