We look at some of the awards won by writers of African descent from the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Booker Prize, the Camões Award to the Prix Goncourt in 2021. What a year 2021 was for writers of African descent as they scooped many of the most prestigious awards in English, French, and Portuguese […]
We look back at some of the books that were published across African and Black literary communities in 2021. It was a very productive year for writing in the African and Black community as publications came out in numbers that we haven’t seen in many a year. We saw so many more poetry collections, novels […]
In our look back at 2021, we focus on the James Murua Literary Livestream which we ran in conjunction with Frankfurter Buchmesse with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office. In 2020, we introduced the James Murua Literary Livestream in partnership with our friends at the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair). The idea was […]
In our continuing look back at the year, we talk about those who passed away in 2021. We have been remembering those who ended their journey as elders and became literary ancestors in our annual recap and this year is no different. Many of those who have produced the work that nourished us as a […]
Raouf Mama was declared the winner of the Grand Prix Littéraire du Bénin 2021 at a ceremony in Cotonou on December 17, 2021. Also winning on the day were Tanguy Agoi and Publishing House Ruisseaux d’Afrique. Grand Prix Littéraire du Bénin was created by the Benin Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts to highlight […]
Maryse Condé, Françoise Vergès and Abdourahman Waberi won at the English PEN’s translation awards announced on December 21, 2021. Books from 15 countries and 13 languages have won English PEN’s flagship translation awards. The 18 awards go to titles by 17 different publishers. They include novels, short story collections, reportage, poetry collections and epic verse, […]
Beatrice Akello Hofmann was revealed to be a finalist of the Eyelands Book Awards 2021 on December 11, 2021. Eyelands Book Awards is an international contest from Eyelands Literary magazine and Strange Days Books Publishing. The prize gives an opportunity to a writer to win a holiday in Athens, Greece, where they talk about their […]
The winners of the Ghana Association of Writers Literary Awards 2021 were announced at a ceremony in Accra on December 16, 2021. The Ghana Association of Writers Literary Awards, first held in 1987, were instituted to honour Ghanaian literary excellence and to celebrate the outstanding efforts made by writers. They went on a hiatus until […]
The Brittle Paper Persons of the Year 2021 were revealed on December 15, 2021. In 2010, Brittle Paper was started by Nigeria-born USA-based academic Ainehi Edoro-Glines as a new voice in an African literary space that was then starting to show itself on the world stage. In 2015, the platform set up the Brittle Paper […]
The winners of the Nommo Awards 2021 were announced to the public by the African Speculative Fiction Society at WorldCon 2021 in Washington DC, USA, today, December 17, 2021. The African Speculative Fiction Society introduced The Nommo Awards to celebrate writing known in other markets as magical realism, Sci-Fi, horror, and graphic novels in 2016. […]
The winners of the Ghana Association of Writers Literary Awards 2021 are set to be announced in Accra today, December 16, 2021. The Ghana Association of Writers Literary Awards, instituted to honour Ghanaian literary excellence and to celebrate the outstanding efforts made by writers, were first held in 1987. They went on a hiatus due […]
The longlists for the PEN America literary awards 2022 were announced today, Wednesday, December 15, 2021. Here are the writers of African descent in the running. PEN America is an organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States through the advancement of literature and human rights since it was founded […]
US author, professor, feminist scholar bell hooks passed away at her home in Kentucky, USA earlier today, December 15, 2021. bell hooks was an American author, professor, feminist, and social activist. The focus of her writing was the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate […]
John Sibi-Okumu was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Carthage Theatre Festival 2021 in Tunis, Tunisia on December 4, 2021. The Carthage Theater Days or Journées Théâtrales de Carthage is a theatre festival hosted by the government of Tunisia since 1983. It happens every two years alternating with the Carthage Film Festival. The festival […]
Chibụìhè Obi Achịmbá was declared the winner of the Frontier Poetry Award 2021 on December 14, 2021. The Frontier Poetry Award is an award from US-based Frontier Poetry that shines a light on some of the best poetry in the world. It awards one poem the $3000 prize—selected by a panel of judges representing two […]
