Category: Sierra Leone
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Ishmael Beah’s newest novel “Little Family” launches at Politics and Prose.
Ishmael Beah’s newest novel Little Family launched virtually at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C., USA on April 28, 2020. The Sierra Leonean was streaming from Los Angeles. Ishmael Beah is an author and human rights activist who rose to fame because of his New York Times-bestselling memoir, A Long Way Gone. He…
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A snapshot of Afrolit Sans Frontières Season 2.
Season 2 of Afrolit Sans Frontières was hosted by African writers from cities all over the world over the Internet from April 20-27, 2020. The Afrolit Sans Frontiers Virtual Literary Festival, an initiative by and for writers of African origin, started in March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic international lockdown. The second edition…
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Ishmael Beah at Afrolit Sans Frontières Season 2.
Ishmael Beah rounded out Season 2 of Afrolit Sans Frontières on Instagram from Los Angeles, USA on Monday, April 27, 2020. He was hosted by Zukiswa Wanner. Afrolit Sans Frontières, an initiative by and for writers of African origin, started in March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic international lockdown. Season 2, like the…
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Brunel International African Poetry Prize 2020 shortlist announced.
Six poets are on the Brunel International African Poetry Prize 2020 shortlist announced on March 30, 2020. The Brunel International African Poetry Prize was founded by Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London (and Booker Prize winner) Bernardine Evaristo to revitalise African poetry in 2012. The prize, worth 3,000 UK pounds to an unpublished…
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Sierra Leonean academic and literary critic Prof Eldred Durosimi Jones has passed on.
Sierra Leonean academic and literary critic Prof Eldred Durosimi Jones passed away in Freetown, Sierra Leone on Saturday, March 21, 2020. Prof Eldred Durosimi Jones, born on January 6, 1925, was raised and educated in his native Sierra Leone before going on to stints in universities around Africa, the US, and the UK. He was…
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Yarri Kamara receives PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant 2020.
Yarri Kamara was announced as a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant 2020 recipient on December 23, 2019. The PEN/Heim Translation Fund awards grants to promote the publication and reception of translated world literature in English. It was established in 2003 by a gift from Priscilla and Michael Henry Heim in response to the dismayingly low number…
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Sierra Leone National Book Fair to kick off on December 5.
The Sierra Leone National Book Fair is set to run in Freetown, Sierra Leone from December 5 – 7, 2019. The fair theme is “Read Salone, Build Salone.” The West African country of Sierra Leone is set to have its first book fair ever starting on Thursday, December 5 in its capital of Freetown. At…
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Isha Sesay’s “Beneath the Tamarind Tree” focuses on the Chibok Girls.
Isha Sesay’s first book Beneath the Tamarind Tree: A Story of Courage, Family, and the Lost Schoolgirls of Boko Haram was published by Harper Collins on July 9, 2019. On the night of April 14, 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria.…
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Mubanga Kalimamukwento, Foday Mannah on UK’s Bristol Short Story Prize 2019 shortlist.
Mubanga Kalimamukwento and Foday Mannah. are the two Africans on the Bristol Short Story Prize 2019 shortlist announced on July 24, 2019. The Bristol Short Story Prize is an international writing competition founded in 2007 by the editors of the quarterly cultural magazine Bristol Review of Books. The prize publishes a short story anthology full…
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Aminatta Forna makes Ondaatje Prize 2019 shortlist.
Aminatta Forna is on the Ondaatje Prize 2019 shortlist announced today, April 17, 2019, for her novel Happiness. The Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize is an annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, best evoking the spirit of a place. The prize sponsored by Sir Christopher Ondaatje has…
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The Ondaatje Prize 2019 longlist features three Africans
The Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize 2019 longlist, featuring Aminatta Forna, Emmanuel Iduma, and Jamal Mahjoub, was announced on March 27, 2019. The Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize is an annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, best evoking the spirit of a place. The prize sponsored…
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Residencies: Efe Paul Azino, Heran Abate, and Joseph Kaifala.
Efe Paul Azino, Heran Abate, and Joseph Kaifala are off to residencies in different parts of the world. Residencies are an important part of the writer or poet experience as they get to stay in one place and work on their craft without the usual worries. This is because at many of the better residencies,…
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World Read Aloud Day 2019 celebrated Across Africa on February 1.
World Read Aloud Day 2019 was celebrated on February 1 in venues across Africa. World Read Aloud Day, an initiative that aims at ensuring that we have a reading planet, was started by the Pam Allyn founded LitWorld organisation. On World Read Aloud Day first hosted in 2010, people all around the world read aloud…
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Aminatta Forna to judge Canada’s Scotiabank Giller Prize 2019
Aminatta Forna is set to judge Canada’s Scotiabank Giller Prize 2019. She will be joined by four other judges. The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, who passed away from cancer the year before. The award recognized excellence in Canadian fiction –…
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Re-Imagined Storytelling Festival 2018 for Nairobi this December.
The Re-Imagined Storytelling Festival 2018 will be hosted at the Alliance Française, Nairobi on December 15, 2018. In 2017 Positively African, a Nairobi based organization bringing together a Pan-African network of artists, activists and academics unveiled the Re-Imagined Storytelling Festival. The festival drew on age-old African traditions of oral storytelling in order to revive the…