ImageNations

The Writers Project of Ghana is organising a series of workshops to promote writing in Ghana. Last week's section focused on Poetry and participants learnt different methods of writing poetry and the use of metaphor. It really was interesting and refreshing to discard what we have come to call the 'Calabash Problem'.  Coming from the back of this success, the workshop continues this week with the focus now on fiction. Our resource person is the American writer  Laban Carrick Hill , co-founder of the Writers Project of Ghana. The venue is the Legon Hall reading room of the University of Ghana Legon. The workshop would be a day and a half beginning from 9am to 12 noon and 1 pm to 4 pm on 29th May 2010 and from 1 pm to 4 pm on 30th May 2010. Come and learn different methods of writing and expand your scope.

Nnedi Okorafor (full name: Nnedimma Nkemdili Okorafor) is a Nigerian-American science fiction/fantasy novelist and a professor of creative writing at Chicago State University. She has also written under the pen-name Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. She writes both Adult and Young Adult novels. Books and Awards Nnedi Okorafor has written several books, which have gone on to win numerous awards. She received the Hurston/wright Literary Award for her Story ' Amphibious Green ' in 2001. She is also the winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literarture in Africa with Zahrah .  Zahrah was shortlisted for the 2005 Carl Brandon Parallax and Kindred Awards and a finalist for the for the Garden State Teen Book Award and the Golden Duck Award. He novel, The Shadow Speaker was a winner of the Carl Brandon Society The CBS Parallax Award, it was also a Booksense Pick for Winter 2007/08 and a Tiptree Honor Book. The Shadow Speaker was also a finalist for the Essence Magazine Literary Award, t...

Once again, a literary milestone is about to be chalked by one of Ghana's finest young writers, Boakyewaa Glover. I am one of the few pessimist who has always questioned whether Ghana is trailing behind other African countries in terms of literary talents. But the answer is fast blowing in my face (forget the cliche), if it hasn't already.  Boakyewaa Glover is an Organizational Psychologist working as a Consultant in Atlanta, USA. However, he had both her primary, secondary and first degree education in Ghana. Whilst at the Wesley Girls' High School, Boakyewaa Glover was a member of the Writers and Debaters Club (I was also a member but was in Adisadel College, both of these schools are in Cape Coast). At Wesley Girls (popularly called Wey Gey Hey) she completed her first novel titled ' Basic Reality '. This was followed by ' Tendai ' after she completed Gey Hey. In Tendai , Boakyewaa pitted science with tradition. The story explored the repercussions of a ...

Yesterday evening was an evening to remember. It is the dream of every budding writer to meet other writers who have published their works and whose name is common to all. Yet, greater joy comes from not knowing who the person only to be told that he is an award-winning writer.  Yesterday evening, at the American Corner of the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA), I had the privilege of meeting two great writers of our time: Kojo Laing, whose latest novel, Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters, I reviewed on this blog and the Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina. Binyavanga Wainaina Binyavanga Wainaina is a Kenyan author, journalist and a 2002 Caine-Prize winning author of Discovering Home . He is also the founding editor of Kwani?, a literary magazine in Kenya. He is also the Director of the Chinua Achebe Centre in New York. Binyavanga read from his yet to be published memoir. His reading captivated us all and left us laughing with its humour and character...

A new anthology has been published and released. This anthology, titled Africa's Best Stories, is a collection of short stories by Africa's best story writers, most of whom have won various awards. Authors included in this anthology are the Nobel Prize winning author Wole Soyinka, the Orange Prize winning author Chimamanda Adichie , Caine Prize winner E. C. Osondu , Caine Prize finalist Sefi Atta and many other upcoming writers. Some of the stories included in this anthology are Why Husbands who Love their BMWs should avoid High Hairstyles by Muthoni Garlan, The Guitar by Kingwa Kamencu, The Time Story by Chimamanda Adichie, and A Place Called Hope by Jude Dibia. There are 18 stories from different writers in this anthology. This book has been selected and endorsed by Oprah Winfrey for the Oprah Book Club.     'Every story is carefully crafted, distinctively told with unique voice of the author. The book contains stories that will make the reader laugh, grin, cry, ...

On April 26, 2010, the shortlist for the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing was announced. The Caine Prize, widely known as the ‘African Booker’ and regarded as Africa’s leading literary award, is now in its eleventh year Chair Judge The Chair Judge for this year's award, The Economist literary editor Fiammetta Rocco, said: "Africa has much to be proud of in these five writers. Not only are their stories all confident, ambitious and skillfully written, each one boasts an added dimension – a voice, character or particular emotional connection – that makes it uniquely powerful." Joining Fiammetta on the judging panel this year are Granta deputy editor Ellah Allfrey, Professor Jon Cook of the University of East Anglia, and Georgetown University professor Samantha Pinto. Entries Selected from 115 entries from 13 African countries, the shortlist is once again a reflection of the Caine Prize’s pan-African reach.  Award The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be...

Wizzy Mangoma Born in Zimbabwe, Wizzy Mangoma is a Writer, Spoken Word Artist, Storry Teller, Dancer/Choreographer, and Theater Director. She has travelled thoughout Africa teaching and learning different African cultures. Read more about Wizzy here... According to Wizzy, she is inspired by life and she's influenced by sharing and acting in the now because tomorrow may never come. Wizzy has published a book of poetry titled 'Moment Treasures'. The collection promises to be interesting, judging from her rich experience with songs and tradition... Click here to make a purchase.

Brian Chikwava is an African writer. His short story Seventh Street Alchemy was awarded the 2004 Caine Prize for African Writing and Chikwava became the first Zimbabwean to do so. Brian is among the exciting new generation of writers emerging on the African continent. Although born in Bulawayo, Chikwava's formative years were spent in Harare, where he attended university and frequented the popular artistes' venue The Book Café. The Fig Tree and the Wasp is a short story I read at the Granta online magazine. This short story is an interesting and thought-provoking piece. It defines the author-artiste and projects him very much. I have not read anything by Brian save this short story and I am very much impressed by his writing. The freedom for independence, which led to freedom of indulgence, the contraction of the 'long-illness' disease and the death of the the victim, is the trajectory upon which the story travels. The lives of men and women, boys and...

  Nana Awere Damoah Nana Awere Damoah, the author of Excursions in My Mind, has published his latest book titled 'Through the Gates of Thought'. This book is a collection of stories, aphorisms, poetry and articles. Nana's literary exploit has taken him far and wide and his story 'Truth Floats' also appeared in the maiden edition of StoryTime's anthology African Roar .  Nana receives his education in both Ghana and the UK. He is a chemical engineer at Unilever and still finds time to write. He is a family man whose closeness to his family led him to dedicate a whole blog just for his children. Through the Gates of Thought promises to be an interesting read. I would be interviewing the engineer, father, writer, author and man of virtues soon on this blog. This new book is available on the world wide web through amazon.com click here to purchase... Nii Ayikwei Parkes Nii Ayikwei Parkes's poem ballast: a remix is one of the six shortlisted poems from over ...

This blog has been in existence for almost two years. Over this period its objective and agenda has metamorphosed from just a place of literary posting to a place of promoting African Literature and my poems. In promoting African Literature I tended to post reviews of books (novels, short stories, non-fiction, collection of poetry etc) I have read. Thus, every book that was posted were reviewed by me. In doing so, I have tended to be slow and therefore this slowness has seriously affected the zest with which I wanted to promote African Literature. Again, interviews have been far and between and this is not what I envisaged at the beginning.  Therefore to bring verve into this blog and to make this blog a place for the promotion of African Literature as a whole I have decided to include the following: 1. Review of African Books (poetry, fiction, non-fiction etc) at various sites 2. Literary competitions available for Africans 3. Literary awards earned by African writers 4. Newly p...

I have been a little busy in recent times and my reading has largely been affected. I would pick up from where I stopped perhaps tomorrow and slowly chew my way through the novels. However, in remaining true to promoting African literature I hereby link you to a novel, The Memory of Love , written by Aminatta Forna and reviewed by Helon Habila .Though I have not read this novel, if the review is anything to go by it is likely to be a good read.  Excerpts from the review: Aminatta Forna's brilliant new novel takes an oblique look at the Sierra Leonean civil war of the 1990s. Instead of focusing on the gruesome details of killing and looting and the sectarian politics behind it all, the novel examines in clinical and psychological detail how people survive the memory of war. Despite its horrors, war at least provided some certainties; people survived from day to day. Now the future lies before them and they are uncertain, filled with memories of loss and shame, often pushed ...

Title: African Roar Genre: Anthology of Short Stories Publishers: Lion Press Pages: 156 (e-copy) Year of Publication: 2010 (Coming Out Soon) Country: Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, Diasporans etc My reading this year has not not been as I expected and so I was glad when I found an ecopy of this upcoming book in my inbox for a possible review and having been a follower of StoryTime , a registered magazine/ezine, where all these began, I became even more happy to realise that the electronic versions of the stories have, finally, been put into print. African Roar is a collection of eleven (11) short stories written by Africans or individuals who have lived in Africa for at least 10 years or who are Africans by naturalisation. The stories ranged from domestic abuse to political vendetta to ruings about love and the cycles of life. It covers many aspects of life as Africans. The anthology opens with the story 'Big Pieces, Small Pieces' by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma. Th...