Olongo Africa celebrated International Mother Tongue Day, February 21, with a new anthology edited by Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún and Olajide Salawu. International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. The day, which was gazetted by UNESCO in 1999, has […]
We wrap up book news for our readers in our regular Book Digest feature with anthologies from writers from across the continent. When Secrets Become Stories edited by Sue Nyathi Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers SAPublication Date: July 7, 2021Genre: FictionContributors: Lorraine Sithole, Desiree-Anne Martin, UCT vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng, Shafinaaz Hassim, Cathy Park Kelly and Olivia […]
No Time to Mourn, a new anthology featuring writing by women from South Sudan, launched in Juba, South Sudan on July 7, 2021. In June 2019, FEMRITE and Oxfam collaborated to convene a week-long writing retreat for 18 South Sudanese women living in Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, and Australia. The retreat aimed to give participants an […]
The Nostalgia Anthology, the latest from Jalada Africa the Pan African writers collective, launched online on Friday, December 4, 2020. Jalada Africa, the pan African writers’ collective and publisher was born when writers from across the continent converged in Nairobi in 2014. They have since gone on to publish many critically acclaimed anthologies both as […]
Addis Ababa Noir, a new anthology edited by Maaza Mengiste and published by Akashic Books, launched at the Strand Books, New York, USA, on August 4, 2020. Akashic Books is a US publisher of urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are ignored by the mainstream. One of the most remarkable of its […]
Songs We Learn from Trees, an Ethiopian poetry anthology edited by Chris Beckett and Alemu Tebeje, which styles itself as the “first in the English language,” launched last week. Alemu Tebeje is an Ethiopian journalist, poet, and human rights campaigner who left Ethiopia in the early 1990s and now lives in London, UK. His poems […]
Digital Bedbugs, a new anthology edited by Caine Prize winner Makena Onjerika, has been available for readers since January 15, 2020. Makena Onjerika burst onto the African literary scene when she won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2018 for her story Fanta Blackcurrant. Since then, we have heard her writing in anthologies like […]
The Bodies Anthology, the tenth from the Nairobi-based Pan African collective Jalada Africa, launched at the Kioko Mwitiki Gallery, Nairobi on Friday, December 13, 2019. Pan African writers’ collective and publisher Jalada was born in 2014 when writers from across the continent converged for a literary do in Nairobi. Since then the collective has gone […]
The Caine Prize for African Writing has released a special edition anthology, celebrating the literary talent of 20 excellent African short stories since its inception in 2000. Awarded annually to the best short story written by an African writer, the Caine Prize has supported and rewarded outstanding contemporary African literature for 20 years. The new […]
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 […]
New Daughters of Africa, the seminal anthology edited by Margaret Busby, launched in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 4, 2019. New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby, features the writing of over 200 women writers in Africa and its diaspora. It is a sequel to Daughters of Africa, also edited by Busby and published […]
The cover for Water Birds on the Lakeshore, the anthology of Goethe Institut’s AfroYoungAdult project has been revealed. In September 2018, the Goethe Institut announced a new project for writers of young adult fiction on the continent. The project called AfroYoungAdult, coordinated by publisher and novelist Zukiswa Wanner, aimed at shining a light on fiction […]
The Syncity NG anniversary anthology and prize winners were announced on July 17, 2019. Syncity NG was founded by Nigerian writer Cynthia Osuchukwu as a regular multi-topic blog in 2017. In 2018, it embraced literature as a niche; they have since gone on to cover literary events and book festivals from across the African continent. […]
The Death of An Idea: Malawi Writing Today II launched in the Malawi cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe on June 30 and July 9, 2019. In 1999, Malawi Writing Today: A PEN Anthology of Recent Writing in Malawi edited by Kingston Lapukeni Phiri which featured the writing of Steve Chimombo, Rycken Baobab, Edison Mpina, David […]
Alone and other Zambian Stories, a new anthology of short stories by Zambian writers, was launched at Grey Matter Zambia, Lusaka on July 6, 2019. Alone and other Zambian Stories a new anthology made its appearance on the African literary scene this past week. The anthology has short stories from Zambian writers Ingrid Nayame, Henry […]
