Category: Advocacy
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Kenyan Readathon 2025 to start in March.
The sixth edition of the Kenyan Readathon, in an announcement shared on Wednesday, January 15, is set to kick off in March. The Kenyan Readathon is a month-long reading marathon celebrating Kenyan literature started by book activist Lexa Lubanga in 2020. In that first year, the initiative asked Kenyans to read writers from their country…
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African, Black writers join Israel Boycott Pledge
The African and Black literary community, refusing complicity in Israel’s literary institutions, has joined others to condemn the actions of Israel in Palestine. The artist is the conscience of the community and one of the most pressing issues in the world right now is Palestine. The Middle Eastern country was colonised by European Jews who…
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Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Arundhati Roy share Pen Pinter Prize 2024
Alaa Abd el-Fattah was selected by PEN Pinter Prize 2024 winner Arundhati Roy to be this year’s co-winner in London, UK on Thursday, October 10, 2024. The PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a writer from Britain, the Republic of Ireland, or the Commonwealth who, in the words of Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize-winning speech,…
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Rabat, Morocco is UNESCO World Book Capital 2026
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay announced Rabat, Morocco as the designated UNESCO World Book Capital 2026 on October 8, 2024. The World Book Capital is the city that UNESCO designates to be the headquarters of World Book and Copyright Day activities starting April 23. This date is the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and…
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Kenyan Readathon 2024 event for September 14
The official Kenyan Readathon 2024 event will be hosted at the McMillan Memorial Library, Nairobi on Saturday, September 14, 2024. In 2020, literary activist Lexa Lubanga unveiled the “Kenya Readathon” initiative to celebrate writing from the East African nation. It was a virtual series to encourage readers to promote Kenyan authors with their work as…
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Kenya’s National Read Aloud 2024 for July 12
Kenya’s National Read Aloud 2024 will be hosted in schools around the country on Thursday, July 12, 2024. On June 16, 2014, the Storymoja Read Aloud campaign was started to get kids around the country to read from the same text while spawning the next generation of readers. Since then, the annual activity has brought…
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Kagiso Lesego Molope thrown out of Canadian gala over Palestine
Kagiso Lesego Molope was thrown out of the Politics and the Pen Writers’ Trust Gala in Ottawa, Canada over her remarks on the Palestine genocide on May 7, 2024. Kagiso Lesego Molope is not a new name for anyone who follows the African literary space. The South African currently based in Canada is the author…
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Maaza Mengiste, Michelle Alexander withdraw from PEN World Voices Festival over Palestine
Maaza Mengiste, Michelle Alexander, and other writers have withdrawn from the PEN World Voices Festival scheduled for New York, USA from May 10 – 13, 2024. PEN America’s World Voices Festival is a celebration of international literature and writers, founded by Salman Rushdie, Michael Roberts, and Esther Allen in 2004 with the inaugural event running…
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Kenyan Readathon 2024 to kick off in April
The Kenyan Readathon 2024 dedicated to Kenyan books, celebrating its fifth year, is set to run from April to September. In 2020, literary activist Lexa Lubanga announced the “Kenya Readathon” initiative to celebrate writing from the East African nation. It was a virtual series to encourage readers to promote Kenyan authors with their work as…
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Zukiswa Wanner Surrenders Germany’s Goethe Medal over Gaza Genocide
South African author, publisher, and curator Zukiswa Wanner has today surrendered the Goethe Medal over Germany’s continued support of the genocide in Gaza. The Goethe Medal, first issued in 1955, has, since 1975 been recognised as an official badge of honour by the Federal Republic of Germany. Previous winners of the award include Daniel Barenboim,…
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Authors, Organisations protest South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill
South Africa’s new Copyright Amendment Bill has been lambasted by authors and other artists both in the country and further afield. There are rumblings in South Africa about the Copyright Amendment Bill, the first comprehensive effort to modernise South Africa’s copyright law in half a century. It is an opportunity to bring the copyright system…
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African and Black writers in solidarity with Gaza. #CeasefireNow
African and Black writers, poets, scholars, academics, and others have signed a statement in solidarity with the Palestinian people. On October 7, Hamas attacked military bases on Israel’s border from Gaza and captured hundreds of hostages. In retaliation, Israeli authorities who control the region unleashed violence with carpet bombing of hospitals, churches and mosques, apartments,…
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Kenyan Readathon 2023 for September
The Kenyan Readathon 2023, a month-long event dedicated to Kenyan books, will be hosted this September for the fourth. In 2020, literary activist Lexa Lubanga announced the “Kenya Readathon” initiative to celebrate writing from the East African nation. It was a virtual series to encourage readers to promote Kenyan authors with their work as well…
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Read Caribbean Month 2023 is here!
“Read Caribbean Month,” dedicated to reading books written by Caribbean writers, was kicked off on Monday, June 5, 2023. The Caribbean, which hosts many people of African descent, has produced some of the most important writing in world literature for decades. It has produced winners of major international prizes like the Nobel Prize in Literature…
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Tsitsi Dangarembga receives Norway Author’s Freedom of Expression Award 2022
Tsitsi Dangarembga received the Norwegian Authors’ Union Freedom of Expression Award 2023 in Oslo, Norway on March 18, 2023. The Norwegian Authors’ Union (Norwegian: Den norske Forfatterforening) is an association of Norwegian authors established to promote Norwegian literature and protect Norwegian authors’ professional and economic interests in 1893. It also works in solidarity with persecuted…