Ben Okri: Beyond Myth and Magic
This year, Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program marks its 25th Anniversary. In celebration, they’ve asked their favorite writers to take a fresh look at some of the works selected...
View ArticleChinelo Okparanta on Faith, War and Being Gay in Nigeria
Late in Under the Udala Trees, Ijeoma awakens from an accidental sleep to find that her infant daughter is not where she left her. In a hazy realization, Ijeoma catches a glimpse of her daughter across...
View ArticleAnd After Many Days
Paul turned away from the window and said he needed to go out at once to the next compound to see his friend. It was a Monday afternoon in the rainy season of 1995. Outside, the morning shower had...
View ArticleCan Literature Heal the Scars of a Nation?
This January I participated in the Galle Literary Festival, a book lover’s dream held on the paradise island of Sri Lanka and curated by one of my literary heroes, Shyam Selvadurai. This was a...
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Africa Has Always Been Sci-Fi
Whence the “Afro” in “Afrofuturism”? In the 1994 interview with Samuel R. Delaney that inaugurated the term, Mark Dery defines Afrofuturism as “speculative fiction that treats African American themes...
View ArticleA. Igoni Barrett on Nigeria, Language, and Striving for the Universal
The following conversation took place on March 23, 2016 as part of Mic’s Q&A series, Pass the Mic. Jamilah King: I’m a staff writer at Mic and my work focuses on race and culture, and I’m honored...
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How Teju Cole Helped Me Make Peace With the Nigerian Scam Artist
Teju Cole will be appearing at Town Hall Seattle as part of Seattle Arts & Lectures Literary/Arts series on Thursday, April 21st. These words, popping up on my twitter feed, were the words that...
View ArticleOn Writing Islamic Identity and Being Labeled a Political Writer
Any contemporary novelist who takes on themes of Islamic identity and jihad in their work risks being labeled a political writer. But for Elnathan John, a debut novelist from Nigeria, and Leila...
View ArticleNicole Dennis-Benn and Chinelo Okparanta Tell Their Own Stories
Nicole Dennis-Benn’s debut novel, Here Comes the Sun, is available now from Liveright; Chinelo Okparanta’s latest novel is Under the Udala Trees. Nicole Dennis-Benn: In a 2015 Guardian article, author...
View ArticleOn Queerness, Empathy, and Afro-Modernity
Mark Gevisser: Hello Pwaangulongi Dauod. Your piece in Granta “Africa’s Future Has No Space For Stupid Black Men” is explosive, devastating, passionate. It feels very urgent. What drove you to write...
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8 Great Books by LGBTQ Authors From Places Where It’s Illegal to Be Gay
Today, May 17th, is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, first organized back in 2004 in order “to draw the attention of policymakers, opinion leaders, social movements, the public...
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Writing About Infertility in a World that Sees Childless Marriage as Tragedy
In the peculiar hierarchy of African households the only rung lower than motherless child is childless mother. Taiye Selasi, “The Sex Lives of African Girls” I know of a Nigerian couple who had been...
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17 Living Writers Currently Immortalized on Stamps
Earlier this week, Literary Hub Editor-in-Chief Jonny Diamond (who is Canadian) came across an image of an Alice Munro stamp (also Canadian) and wondered aloud if there were very many living writers...
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Imagining the Future of Nigeria: Accessing Africa Through Sci-Fi
In 2016, an old scam began circulating on Facebook about a man who needed to collect money to rescue his cousin, a Nigerian astronaut, from space. One Dr. Bakare Tunde explained that he needed to raise...
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What Does Resistance Look Like in the Face of Extremism?
I didn’t plan on becoming obsessed with Africa. But ever since taking a ten-month internship at a newspaper in Uganda after college, I have returned to the fascinating, unpredictable, and maddening...
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