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Cameroon Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday: Cameroonian writer Mongo Beti.

In a continuation of the Throwback Thursday series highlighting some of the best writers from the 20th century, we introduce to you Cameroonian writer Mongo Beti. Mongo Beti was the penname of Alexandre Biyidi Awala who was born in a village 55 kilometres from Yaoundé, Cameroon on June 30, 1932. The writer, who also used […]

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Awards Somalia

Nuruddin Farah receives Lee Hochul Literary Prize for Peace 2019.

Nuruddin Farah received the Lee Hochul Literary Prize for Peace 2019 at a ceremony in Seoul, South Korea on August 28, 2019. Nuruddin Farah, one of the continent’s leading novelists, has also written plays both for stage and radio, as well as short stories and essays. Since leaving his native Somalia in the 1970s, he […]

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Events Ghana Transition

Ghanaian writers celebrate Toni Morrison in Accra.

Toni Morrison was honoured by Ghanaian writers at the e-Ananse Public Library in Accra, Ghana on August 19, 2019. On August 5, 2019, novelist, poet, and academic Toni Morrison, one of the planet’s most respected passed away. There was an outpouring of emotion for the writer who while having been born and bred in the […]

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Book Reviews Fiction Kenya

Review Wednesday: A review of Billy Kahora’s “The Cape Cod Bicycle War And Other Stories.”

Book: The Cape Cod Bicycle War And Other Stories Author: Billy Kahora Publisher: Huza Press Genre: Fiction/Short stories Number of pages: 303 Publication year: 2019 Billy Kahora’s The Cape Cod Bicycle War And Other Stories is a collection of eleven short stories written over the last decade and a half set across Kenya, South Africa and […]

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Awards Festivals Kenya

African Writers Awards 2019 shortlists unveiled.

The shortlists for the African Writers Awards 2019 were unveiled today Monday, August 26, 2019. The African Writers Conference brings together writers of African descent to a common platform on the advancement of the collective interests of African writers. The first edition of the African Writers Development Trust event was hosted in Abuja, Nigeria in […]

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Events Kenya

An evening with Panashe Chigumadzi in Nairobi.

Nairobi residents engaged Zimbabwean-South African novelist and essayist Panashe Chigumadzi at the Columbia Global Centre on Monday, August 19, 2019. The evening was conducted by Nanjala Nyabola. Panashe Chigumadzi is the writer of Sweet Medicine about Tsitsi who has to survive in the harsh world of mid-noughties Harare, Zimbabwe. The novel, that we really rated, […]

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Anthologies New Books South Africa

Niq Mhlongo’s “Black Tax: Burden or Ubuntu?” out now.

Niq Mhlongo’s first edited anthology Black Tax: Burden or Ubuntu?, published by Jonathan Ball, already available in the South African market, has an official publishing date of September 10, 2019. Niq Mhlongo, who emerged with his debut novel Dog Eat Dog about the life of a campus student in a South Africa that was just […]

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Kenya Launches Theatre

Vincent R. Ogoti launches “A Shadow In The Sun” in Nairobi.

Vincent R Ogoti launched his debut play A Shadow In The Sun at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi on August 16, 2019. On August 9, a new play A Shadow in the Sun, co-directed by Vincent R. Ogoti and Kevin M. Mosigisi played at the University of Nairobi Traveling Theatre. The play which […]

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Throwback Thursday Zimbabwe

Throwback Thursday: Zimbabwean author and poet Dambudzo Marechera.

In the return of our “Throwback Thursday” segment, we feature legendary late Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera. Dambudzo Marechera was a Zimbabwean novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet who was born on June 4, 1952. His first book, written while in England, was House of Hunger a collection of a novella of 80-odd pages which […]

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Marketing Podcast

Exit “Not Another Book Podcast.” Enter the “Books & Rhymes” Podcast.

The “Not Another Book Podcast” announced the end of their run as a podcast on August 13, 2019. Fortunately, we have the “Books & Rhymes” Podcast to keep us company. In 2018, a new podcast called “Not Another Book Podcast” was set up by BookShyBooks who runs the BookShyBooks.com blog, writer and poet PostColonialChild, and […]

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Awards Fiction Nigeria

EC Osondu is US’s BOA Short Story Fiction Prize 2019 winner.

EC Osondu has been announced as the winner of the BOA Short Story Fiction Prize 2019 today, August 20, 2019, for his short story Alien Stories. BOA Editions is a United States publisher of poetry and other literary works founded by the late poet, editor, and translator A. Poulin Jr in 1976. BOA Editions identifies, […]

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Awards Fiction Nigeria

Chigozie Obioma is US Digital Book World 2019 Awards Finalist.

Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra Of Minorities is a finalist at the Digital Book World 2019 Awards announced on August 13, 2019. Digital Book World is a major event around publishing and books that happens annually in the United States. One of its most eagerly awaited features is the Digital Book World Awards which recognises exceptional […]

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New Books Nigeria Nonfiction Sierra Leone

Isha Sesay’s “Beneath the Tamarind Tree” focuses on the Chibok Girls.

Isha Sesay’s first book Beneath the Tamarind Tree: A Story of Courage, Family, and the Lost Schoolgirls of Boko Haram was published by Harper Collins on July 9, 2019. On the night of April 14, 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. […]

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Awards Fiction Zimbabwe

Tsitsi Dangarembga on US St. Francis College Literary Prize 2019 shortlist.

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body is on the shortlist for the St Francis College Literary Prize 2019 announced on August 15, 2019. The St Francis College Literary Prize is a biennial award recognising outstanding fiction by writers in the middle stages of their careers. The prize worth US$50,000 has been won by Aleksandar Hemon (2009), […]

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Awards Festivals Nigeria South Africa

Resoketswe Manenzhe, Frances Ogamba win Writivism awards in Kampala, Uganda.

Resoketswe Manenzhe and Frances Ogamba are the winners of the Writivism Short Story Prize 2019 and Koffi Addo Creative Nonfiction Prize 2019 announced in Kampala, Uganda on August 18, 2019. Writivism, the project of writing as activism, was started by Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, Naseemah Mohamed and Kyomuhendo A Ateenyi of the Centre for African Cultural […]