Andrew Herbert Omuna was announced the winner of the Babishai Haiku Prize 2020 at a virtual ceremony on Tuesday, December 29, 2020. The Babishai Haiku Prize brought to you by the Babishai Niwe Foundation that also organises the Babishai Niwe Poetry Prize and the Babishai Niwe Poetry Festival, has been running since 2016. The first […]
We wrap up book news for our readers in our Book Digest feature. Today our focus is the anthologies Accra Noir; No Time to Mourn: An anthology by South Sudanese Women; and Poetic Justice: An Anthology of Contemporary Moroccan Poetry (Modern Middle East Literatures in Translation). Accra Noir (Akashic Noir) Editors: Nana-Ama Danquah Publisher: Akashic […]
Writer and poet Mugabi Byenkya took to Twitter to name and shame Ugandan bookshops that have failed to pay him years after supplying his debut poetry collection Dear Philomena on December 19, 2020. It seems to be working. After the arduous task of writing several drafts and going through the publishing process, the writer is […]
With the holiday upon us, here is information on the latest issues of 7 literary journals that offer some of the best writing coming out of the continent you can dig in. They are listed in alphabetical order. Arablit Quarterly Recent Issue: December 2020 ArabLit Quarterly is a literary magazine that brings together Arabic literature, […]
The longlists for the PEN America literary awards 2021 were announced today, Tuesday, December 22, 2020. Here are the Africans and African Americans in the running. PEN America, founded in 1922, is an organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States through the advancement of literature and human rights. It […]
Olongo Africa, published by Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, is now available for your reading and submitting pleasure. It’s been a good month for literary publications from the African literary ecosystem. On the 12th, we were introduced to the Imbiza Journal for African Writing from our friends in South Africa. Today we have discovered a new publication from […]
The shortlists for the Sawiris Cultural Award 2020 were announced on December 15, 2020. The Sawiris Cultural Award, open to Egyptian nationals, is one of the richest on the continent with winners going home with thousands of US dollars in cash. The award is for the best novels, short-story collections, and screenplays to come out […]
Chigozie Obioma was announced as one of the judges for the Booker Prize for Fiction 2021 on December 15, 2020. The Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the United Kingdom. Some of the previous African winners of […]
Ayobami Adebayo’s Reste Avec Moi was awarded the Prix Les Afriques 2020 in a virtual ceremony on Saturday, December 12, 2020. Prix Les Afriques is awarded annually to an African or writer of African descent who has written fiction highlighting a human, societal, ideological, political, cultural, economic, or historical issue related to Africa or its […]
Wole Soyinka’s new novel, Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth, is currently making its way across Nigeria. Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth is the third novel from Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and his first since 1972. The book, published by Pantheon at Penguin Random House in the US, is set in […]
Kinyanjui Kombani was this month’s guest at the Columbia Global Centre Book series for African authors on December 9, 2020. The event was moderated by Dr Mshai Mwangola. The New York, USA-based Columbia University has several branches around the world which aim to create opportunities in research, scholarship and teaching around the world. One of […]
The winners of the Barjeel Poetry Prize 2020, the first edition, were announced on December 12, 2020. The Barjeel Poetry Prize is an international competition that invites poets around the world to respond to twenty works of Arab art from the 20th century organised by the UAE-based Barjeel Art Foundation. The inaugural edition was judged […]
The Imbiza Journal for African Writing launched to the public with a call for submissions on December 12, 2020. December 12 saw a new addition to the journals that are produced by and featuring African and Black writers. The new publication is called Imbiza Journal which comes from the isiXhosa word which means a pot […]
Tendai Huchu was the featured author at the Goethe-Institut Namibia’s Virtually Yours on Saturday, December 5, 2020. He was moderated by series curator Zukiswa Wanner. Virtually Yours is a new series that brings you to the centre of contemporary African literature with discussions between leading African authors curated by Zukiswa Wanner and hosted by Goethe-Namibia. […]
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was announced as one of the two winners of the William Saroyan International Prize 2020 on December 9, 2020. The William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, given by Stanford Libraries in partnership with the William Saroyan Foundation, the award recognizes newly published works of fiction and nonfiction with a $5,000 award for […]
