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Writing Africa Needs Your Help!
Writing Africa, the leading archive Preserving & Promoting African and Black Literature, has today started a campaign to ensure that it survives the current rough economic times.
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All African Women Poetry Festival 2025 for Accra
The third edition of the All African Women Poetry Festival will be held in Accra, Ghana, from May 22 – 24, 2025. The All African Women Poetry Festival was launched by Emma Ofosua-founded Tuniq Africa in Accra, Ghana, in 2023. It was aimed at celebrating African literature and literary legends, empowering African women, women of…
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Percival Everett, Saara El-Arifi win at British Book Awards 2025
Percival Everett and Saara El-Arifi won in their categories at the British Book Awards 2025 in London, UK, on Monday, May 12, 2025. The British Book Awards, or Nibbies, fronted by The Bookseller, celebrate the literary and publishing industry in the United Kingdom. They showcase the authors, illustrators, and industry practitioners who bring the books…
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PEN America Literary Awards 2025 winners announced
Mia Couto, Kali Nicole Gross, Frank X Walker, and Charles Henry Rowell were feted at the PEN America Literary Awards 2025 in New York, USA, on Thursday, May 8, 2025. PEN America works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States through the advancement of literature and human rights since it was founded…
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Gift Nyoni wins Afritondo Short Story Prize 2025
Gift Nyoni’s short story Heat won the Afritondo Short Story Prize 2025 on Friday, May 9, 2025 Afritondo, a platform that aims to connect with and tell the stories of African and black minority populations worldwide, is the organisation behind the Afritondo Short Story Prize. Previous award winners, which celebrate the best short story writing…
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Gaël Octavia wins Prix Goncourt Printemps 2025
Gaël Octavia’s L’étrangeté de Mathilde T is a Prix Goncourt Printemps 2025 winner; the announcement was made in Paris, France, on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. The Société littéraire des Goncourt (Goncourt Literary Society), usually called the Académie Goncourt (Goncourt Academy), is a literary organisation founded by French writer and publisher Edmond de Goncourt in Paris…
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US’ Pulitzer Prize 2025 winners announced
Percival Everett, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Edda L. Fields-Black won in their categories at the US’ Pulitzer Prize 2025 at Columbia University, USA on Monday, May 5, 2025. The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, and online journalism, literature, and musical composition held annually in the United States. It was established by…
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Book Digest: Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Moses Ose Utomi, Nana Malone, Charl Landvreugd
Our regular Book Digest segment spotlights new books by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Moses Ose Utomi, Nana Malone, and Charl Landvreugd. Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez Publisher: BerkeleyDate: April 8, 2025Genre: Fiction, Historical fictionLanguage: EnglishWhere to find it: Penguin Random House Dolen Perkins-Valdez Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of Take My Hand (2022),…
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Text Book Centre celebrates 60th anniversary with Penmanship Awards
Kenyan bookstore chain Text Book Centre celebrated its 60th anniversary with the inaugural Penmanship Awards on Thursday, April 24, 2025. In 1964, Mr S V Shah operated a bookshop in Fort Hall, or modern-day Muranga town, while Mr Meneklal Rughani operated a bookshop in Nyeri. A year later, they partnered to start the Text Book…
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Myriam J.A. Chancy wins OCM Bocas Prize 2025
Myriam J.A. Chancy’s novel Village Weavers won the OCM Bocas Prize 2025 at Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on Saturday, May 3, 2025. The OCM (One Caribbean Media) Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, worth US$10,000, is an annual award for books by Caribbean writers, first handed out in 2011. Books are judged in three…
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Island Prize 2025 shortlist announced
The Island Prize for a Debut Novel from Africa 2025 shortlist was made public on Monday, May 5, 2025. The Island Prize for a Debut Novel from Africa is from Holland House Books (UK), Karavan Press (SA), and Booker Prize longlistee Karen Jennings. It aims to give writers from Africa (or the diaspora) a chance…
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Canisia Lubrin wins Carol Shields Prize for Fiction 2025
Canisia Lubrin’s novel Code Noir was declared the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction 2025 winner in Chicago, USA, on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Carol Shields was an American-born Canadian novelist and short story writer best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the US Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the…
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Writing Africa’s James Murua featured on The People Daily
Writing Africa founder James Murua was featured on the Kenyan newspaper The People Daily on Friday, May 2, 2025. The People Daily is a free, ad-supported newspaper based in Nairobi, founded in 1998. On Fridays, they have a regular segment dubbed “Books & Literature,” which shines a light on the people in books in Kenya…
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Literary Magazines: Weganda, JAY Lit, Akpata, Isele Quarterly
New editions of literary magazines Weganda, JAY Lit, Akpata, and Isele Quarterly are available for your reading pleasure. Weganda The Weganda Review is a literary journal produced in Uganda as a project of the cultural nonprofit Weganda Foundation. The platform, founded by Rodney Muhumuza in 2023, features writers, researchers, academics, artists, and others publishing short…
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Highlights of the NYrobi Book Fest 2025
Here are highlights of the NYrobi Book Fest 2025, which was hosted at the Alliance Française Nairobi from April 11 – 13, 2025. In 2019, the Alliance Française in Nairobi started hosting book events regularly, focusing on the self-publishing space. In 2021, the French Cultural Centre hosted the first edition of the NYrobi Book Fest…
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Stanley Onjezani Kenani to chair Malawi Writers Union Short Story Prize 2025 jury.
Stanley Onjezani Kenani, Renee Akitelek Mboya, and Stephen Embleton are the jury of the inaugural Malawi Writers Union Short Story Prize 2025. The Malawi Writers Union Short Story Prize is a new literary award that interrogates the intersections of mental health and artificial intelligence, challenging writers to imagine futures, unravel ethical dilemmas, and reflect on…
