The Miles Morland Foundation has announced the shortlist of 21 names for the 2017 Morland Writing Scholarships. The Morland Writing Scholarship is an annual award given to African writers to enable them to work on a manuscript over a year without worrying about an income. Writers awarded a fiction scholarship will each receive £18,000, paid […]
In our continuing series on Long Reads for lovers of African literature, we present the keynote address at the Lagos Book and Arts Festival 2017 (Labaf 2017). The keynote given by festival guest of honour Prof Niyi Osundare followed the theme of Eruptions: Global Fractures, and Our Common Humanity. It was given on Friday, Nov. […]
The Nommo Awards 2017 were handed out at the opening ceremony of the Ake Festival 2017.In 2016, the African Speculative Fiction Society announced itself on the African literary scene with a new initiative they called the Nommo Awards. The new awards were aimed at recognising works of speculative fiction by Africans, defined as “science fiction, […]
The Ake Festival 2017 kicked off with an opening ceremony to remember. Thursday November 16, 2017 was a special day as it started with the ultimate nod from Western civilisation as ‘father of modern African literature” Chinua Achebe was featured as a Google dongle. The google dongle for those who don’t use the ubiquitous US […]
With the Ake Festival 2017 starting tomorrow, it’s only right that we give you a snapshot of the Ake Arts and Books Festival 2016. If you consume social media more than at least half an hour a day and you follow people in the African literary scene, you will see something from many of them. […]
There are five African authors on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2017 Longlist which was announced on November 7, 2017. They are Mahmoud al-Werwary, Ezzat el-Kamhawi, Ibrahim Eissa, Ahmad Hafid, and Hassouna Mosbahi. The Sheikh Zayed Book award is an independent cultural award administered by Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, with a total monetary […]
Edwidge Danticat was announced the 25th laureate of the renowned Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2018 on November 9, 2017. The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is one of the very few international prizes for which poets, novelists and playwrights are equally eligible. The prize awarded in alternating years with the NSK Neustadt Prize for […]
The winners of the South African Literary Awards 2017 have been announced at a ceremony in Johannesburg tonight. There was a dinner and a celebration as the South African literary industry came together to celebrate the best of the writing in that country. The writers, publishers, poets and all the rest were there to see […]
The Nairobi International Book Fair 2017 was hosted at a series of venues in Nairobi from September 27 – October 1, 2017. The event theme was “Unity Through Books.” The Nairobi International Book Fair is the pioneer of book fair industry in East Africa having being first hosting in Kenya in 1996. The fair which […]
The winners of the Brittle Paper Literary Awards 2017 have been announced. The Brittle Paper Literary Awards was established in August to recognize the finest, original pieces of African writing published online and available to readers for free. It is an award that brings much-needed attention to African writing and literary culture in the digital/social […]
The International Dublin Literary Award 2018 longlist was announced today in Dublin today. The Africans in the running for the prize are Mohale Mashigo, Nthikeng Mohlele, Yaa Gyasi, Imbolo Mbue, and Yewande Omotoso. The International Dublin Literary Award, is an international literary award presented each year for a novel written in English or translated into […]
Khalid Salleh, Oluoch Madiang and F Simiyu Barasa are the winners at the Nyanza Literary Festival 2017. Over a dozen writers from all over Nyanza region gathered at the Kiboko Bay Resort for the Nyanza Literary Festival (NALIF) 2017 on September 23. They included advocate and short story writer P. Ochieng Ochieng, writer Khalid Salleh, […]
Lesley Nneka Arimah is the winner of the Kirkus Prize for fiction 2017 for her short story collection What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky. Kirkus Reviews is a US book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine, headquartered in New York City, publishes on the first and 15th […]
Zainab Suleiman Okino the Editor-In-Chief of Blueprint Newspapers made a presentation to members of Abuja Writers’ Forum on Saturday, the 28th of October, 2017. We have reproduced the whole presentation courtesy of our friends at the Abuja Writers’ Forum. SOCIAL MEDIA INCURSION AND THE CHALLENGES OF PUBLISHING IN NORTHERN NIGERIA By Zainab Suleiman Okino, Editor-In-Chief, […]
The best writers in prose and poetry were announced at the Ghana Writers Awards 2017 in a ceremony in Accra on October 29. Those awarded were Philip Arko Ewusi, Kwao Jonathan Tetteh, Maame Akua Akyea Kodua, and Celestine Nudanu. The second edition of the Ghana Writers Awards were hosted in Accra which had the theme […]
