Category: Writing Africa
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Websites of African and Black Writers and Poets
As part of our mission to archive the African and Black literary landscape, we begin the important task of listing writers and poets with professional websites. The new year often brings renewed focus for writers and poets—a determination to submit to more publications, complete manuscripts, and fully embrace their creative titles. A key, yet sometimes…
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Recap 2025: Literary Awards, Residencies, and Fellowships
As part of our 2025 recap, we list Literary Awards, Residencies, and Fellowships in African and Black Literature over the year. It was another year of overachieving writers of African descent as they grabbed awards, fellowships, and residencies on the continent and in the diaspora. While it cannot be compared to the heights of 2021,…
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2025 Recap: Literary Festivals, Colloquia, and Book Fairs
As part of our 2025 year-in-review, here is a rundown of the literary festivals, colloquia, and book fairs we tracked here at Writing Africa. We closely follow events that feature African writers, as these are vital spaces for engagement with readers. Following our 2024 recap, we continued this focus in 2025 by compiling a global list…
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Recap 2025: Books, Literary Magazines and Journals
As part of our 2025 year-in-review, here is a rundown of the literary magazines and journals, as well as books, we tracked here at Writing Africa. Literary Magazines and Journals Literary magazines and journals are a vital part of the literary ecosystem. They serve as essential platforms, especially for emerging writers, offering many their first experience…
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Writing Africa takes a break; to return in 2026
We here at Writing Africa are taking a break over the holiday period. Until then, please have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2026.
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Join our “Ngugi, Meja, Mangua: A Literary Pilgrimage” Tour
Our August literary tour traces Kenya’s Story Through Street, Stage, and Soil through two towns with the writers Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Meja Mwangi, and Charles Mangua on August 30, 2025. In June, we hosted Nairobi: A City in Words, around Nairobi bookstores and some of the spaces that its writers thrived in the 1970s. In…
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Join our “Nairobi: A City in Words” Tour
You are welcome to an immersive one-day literary tour through Kenya’s capital, curated by literary expert James Murua, on Monday, June 30, 2025. At the end of June, the Nairobi LitFest, the African Literature Association Conference, the Sigana Storytelling Conference, and other events will be held in Nairobi. For those visiting Kenya’s capital for 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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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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Recap 2024: Looking back on African and Black Literature this year.
We look back at everything we covered in African and Black literature from transitions, literary awards, festivals, books, journals, and everything in between in 2024. In 2016, we started a series looking back at the year that passed which has since become a tradition here at Writing Africa. You can look at previous recaps here;…
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Buy a Coffee for Writing Africa with Ko-Fi
You can now support the work we do archiving African and Black literature by buying us a coffee on the Ko-Fi platform. WritingAfrica.com gives visibility to African and Black writers with news on book news, launches, literary festivals, author profiles, and more. The project which started in 2013 is now the biggest blog on African…
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Recap 2023: African and Black Literature in 2023
We look back at the literary scene across Africa and its diaspora from transitions, literary award winners, festivals, books, journals, and everything in between in 2023. In 2016, we started a series looking back at the year that passed which has since become a tradition here at this website. You can look at the recaps…
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JamesMurua.com is now WritingAfrica.com
The website formerly known as JamesMurua.com will now go with the name WritingAfrica.com. JamesMurua.com was born on April 24, 2013, when I registered a self-titled domain to write about African writers and what they were up to. The African writing community was not being given adequate attention by those who were blogging the way I…
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2022 recap: new books and literary festivals (Part 2)
We look back at the literary scene in 2022 in the second of a two-part series; in this post, we look at the new books from the continent and the literary festivals we covered. In 2016, we here at James Murua Literary introduced what we called the “Outstanding African Literary Awards” where we gave you…
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2022 recap: Transition and Literary Awards across Africa (Part 1)
We look back at the literary scene in 2022 with a two-part series starting with those who left us in 2022 and winners of literary competitions across Africa and its diaspora. In 2016, we here at James Murua Literary introduced what we called the “Outstanding African Literary Awards” where we gave you a look at…