Writing Africa: Archiving African and Black Literature

Category: Events

  • Nadia Maddy novel Corpo Seco launches in London

    Nadia Maddy novel Corpo Seco launches in London

    Nadia Maddy’s sophomore novel Corpo Seco launched at the Africa Centre in London, UK on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. Nadia Maddy, a London-based writer with roots in Sierra Leone, is the author of The Palm Oil Stain (2011), which tackles the realities of the Sierra Leonean Civil War. Her newest novel Corpo Seco which we recently featured…

  • Dennis Mugaa book launches in Nairobi

    Dennis Mugaa book launches in Nairobi

    Dennis Mugaa’s debut short story collection Half Portraits Under Water launched at Cheche Books, Nairobi on Thursday, September 19, 2024. In the last few years, Dennis Mugaa has quietly built a reputation for producing outstanding work in the Kenyan and African literary spaces. The former Prestige Bookstore employee started learning his trade at workshops like…

  • Macondo LitFest 2024, Nairobi International Book Fair 2024 for Nairobi

    Macondo LitFest 2024, Nairobi International Book Fair 2024 for Nairobi

    The second half of September has a raft of literary activities from book launches to literary and book fairs. Here are some you don’t want to miss. Nairobi has always been one of the most happening literary cities with many activities throughout the year. In September, the city goes into a literary frenzy with organisers…

  • Grande Rentrée Littéraire de Kinshasa 2024 starts September 12

    Grande Rentrée Littéraire de Kinshasa 2024 starts September 12

    Grande Rentrée Littéraire de Kinshasa 2024 will be hosted in DR Congo’s capital from September 12 – 14, 2024. The event theme will be “Women and Peace.” Rentrée Littéraire is a practice adopted by French publishers, characterised by many new book releases (all styles and genres mixed). It takes place every year between late August…

  • Abidjan and Accra in focus at litafrika 2024

    Abidjan and Accra in focus at litafrika 2024

    Abidjan and Accra are the focus of the third edition of the litafrika 2024 exhibition at Strauhof Zurich from June 6 – September 8, 2024. “litafrika” is an open archive literary exhibition project in three parts organised by Swiss partners Litar Foundation and Strauhof Zurich. It revolves around the central question: “How do we read…

  • Rebeka Njau’s “Ripples in the Pool” launches in Nairobi

    Rebeka Njau’s “Ripples in the Pool” launches in Nairobi

    Rebeka Njau’s 1975 novel Ripples in the Pool, reissued this year by Bloomsbury Publishing, launched at the Alliance Française, Nairobi on Friday, June 14, 2024. Rebeka Njau is Kenya’s first female playwright and a pioneer in the representation of African women in literature. She is famously one of the only two women, alongside Grace Ogot,…

  • Colombia’s La Comadre tours Nairobi

    Colombia’s La Comadre tours Nairobi

    La Comadre, a women’s organisation of Afro-Colombian victims of the decades-long Colombian conflict, was hosted to events in Nairobi, Kenya from June 4 – 5, 2024. Colombia has had internal conflicts between the government, far-right paramilitary groups and crime syndicates, and far-left guerrilla groups, fighting each other for decades. In 2012, negotiations began between the…

  • Literary initiatives to check out during Caribbean-American Heritage Month

    Literary initiatives to check out during Caribbean-American Heritage Month

    June is Caribbean-American Heritage Month in the US, here are some initiatives in the Caribbean that you might want to check out. June is Caribbean-American Heritage Month in the United States as well as a special one across the Caribbean. The region, which hosts many people of African descent, has produced some of the most…

  • Jahazi Journal Edition 11 launches in Nairobi.

    Jahazi Journal Edition 11 launches in Nairobi.

    The eleventh edition of the Jahazi Journal with the theme “Perspective of Theatre Practice in Kenya” launched in Nairobi on Wednesday, October 25, 2023. Jahazi is an arts & culture journal that builds bridges between theory & practice founded by late performing artist, director, playwright, storyteller, poet, and academic Bantu Mwaura in 2006. The eleventh…

  • Habiba Cooper Diallo, Afua Cooper read at Dakar’s Chez Alpha Books

    Habiba Cooper Diallo, Afua Cooper read at Dakar’s Chez Alpha Books

    Habiba Cooper Diallo and Afua Cooper did readings at Chez Alpha Books in Dakar, Senegal on Saturday, August 12, 2023. Chez Alpha Books is an English resource centre that provides the community access to books in English along with an array of programs and services that support English language learners in Dakar, Senegal. It has…

  • The Heart is A Bastard anthology launches in Nairobi.

    The Heart is A Bastard anthology launches in Nairobi.

    The Heart is A Bastard, a new anthology edited by Zukiswa Wanner and Elias Mutani, was launched in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday, May 27, 2023. In 2020, the University of East Anglia appointed Tsitsi Dangarembga as the International Chair of Creative Writing. As part of the activities for the role, the team would deliver a…

  • Troy Onyango, Chiké Frankie Edozien for Nairobi events.

    Troy Onyango, Chiké Frankie Edozien for Nairobi events.

    Troy Onyango and Chiké Frankie Edozien are set to feature in a series of readings in Nairobi, Kenya from March 23 – 25, 2023. Chiké Frankie Edozien is a Nigerian-American writer and journalist who is currently the director of New York University, Accra. He came to the notice of the African literary community when he…

  • “Resonanzen. Schwarzes Literaturfestival” presented in Frankfurt, Germany.

    “Resonanzen. Schwarzes Literaturfestival” presented in Frankfurt, Germany.

    Resonanzen. Schwarzes Literaturfestival, a publication from a literary festival earlier in the year, was presented in Frankfurt, Germany on October 22, 2022. In May, “Resonanzen – Schwarzes Literaturfestival” (Resonance – A Festival of Black German-Language Fiction) a project of Ruhrfestspiele and writer and political activist Sharon Dodua Otoo was hosted. It aimed to rethink, reimagine…

  • Meja Mwangi: Literary Methods and the Future of Kenyan Writing

    Meja Mwangi: Literary Methods and the Future of Kenyan Writing

    The Kenyan Readathon was hosted at the Alliance Française Nairobi on September 10, 2022. Prolific author Meja Mwangi sent an address that was read on his behalf by event founder Lexa Lubanga.   Meja Mwangi made a huge impact when his debut novel, Kill Me Quick (1973) received the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for literature the…

  • Diaspora Reflections for London on July 2

    Diaspora Reflections for London on July 2

    Diaspora Reflections welcomes you to an African diaspora evening where Afro-pop meets Soul in London, UK on Saturday, July 2, 2022. Diaspora Reflections is a storytelling platform that connects African creatives with members of the diaspora and beyond. They are eager to spark refreshing and diverse conversations amongst the diaspora from across Africa and beyond,…