ImageNations

At the beginning of the month , I was only sure of three titles, one was to be a re-read; I however, stated that I would purchase some Russian literary works to advance my goal of reading Russian literature. At the end of the month I had read a total of four books: 2 of the projected books ( Oscar and Lucinda & Saturday ); 1 Russian Lit ( Crime and Punishment ) and 1 Nobelist from Bulgaria (Auto da Fe). The other title which I projected but did not read was Bessie Head's A Question of Power . This would have been a re-read and was directed at the Book and Discussion Club of the Writers Project of Ghana. However, I realised that I still have the story in me and could relate and discuss it without problem. However, even at my reduced target of 60 books, I am still performing poorly on the average. To read 60 books in a month, one must read an average of 5 books a month; but I am doing less than this requirement. The problem, which is not a problem, is that I am concentratin...

Mia Couto Miguel of St. Orberose  informed me of this. On Monday May 27, Mozambican writer Mia Couto - author of Voices Made Night and Every Man is a Race - was announced as the winner of the 2013 Cam õ es, one of the most prestigious international awards honoring the work of Portuguese language writers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The awarding jury included writers Jose Eduardo Agualusa and Joao Paulo Borges Coelho, journalist Jose Carlos Vasconcelos, professor Clara Crabbe Rocha, critic Alcir Pecora and Ambassador and member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters da Costa e Silva. The Cam õ es Prize was created in 1988, by Portugal and Brazil, to distinguish writers of the Portuguese language whose work has contributed to the enrichment of the literary and cultural heritage of the Portuguese language. ( Source )

The Golden Baobab Prize is in its fifth year. The literary award invites entries of unpublished African-inspired stories written for young audiences below the age of twelve. The mission of the Golden Baobab Prize is to inspire African writers to create enthralling African stories that will inspire the imaginations of generations of African children.  This year, Golden Baobab will award three prizes: The Picture Book Prize awards $1,000 to the best story written for readers ages 6 - 8; The Early Chapter Book Prize awards $1,000 to the best story written for readers 9 - 11; The Rising Writer Prize awards $1,000 to the most promising young writer below the age of 18. This year's prize packages include a publishing deal and opportunities to attend exclusive Golden Baobab writers' workshops. Additional rules and regulations can be found on the organiser's website . Please note that the Golden Baobab Prize is open to African citizens of all ages. Deadline for subm...

The Twitter Book Discussion, an online extension of the Book and Discussion Club of the Writers Project of Ghana , moved into full swing on May 22, 2013 with a discussion of the book A Question of Power.  Prior to this a series of quotes had been shared to its twitter followers. The May 22 edition of this monthly book discussion was a huge success with participants coming from several countries. The idea to extend the Book and Discussion Club to twitter was to have as many individuals as possible read and appreciate a book beyond the words. It was also to expand the reach of the BDC which in itself is a quasi-closed group. At the beginning of every month a book will be announced on WPG's twitter page (with the hand  @writersPG ) followed by the hashtag #wpghbookclub . All those who would want to participate in the discussion could tweet their intention at this handle and follow it with the hashtag. Readers could share snippets of quotes from the book whilst they...

Ian McEwan could best be described as a realist novelist, in addition to other descriptions that could best suit specific novels. For instance, Atonement is somewhat a metafiction where Briony was writing, partly, her story, in addition to being a historical novel. On Chesil Beach  is also, somewhat, a historical novel, which, through its characters, provides the pointers of change that has taken place. Saturday  (2005; 291 - Anchor Books) by Ian McEwan is the ultimate realist novel one might read and it is also one that would raise a lot of questions. The story is set on a specific date, February 13, 2003 - the day thousands (if not millions) marched against America's invasion of Iraq following the 9-11 terrorist attack. This attack means that terrorism has become a major topic for discussion including the Perowne household. The Perownes have a peaceful home. Their Blues guitarist son Theo, though has dropped out of school, was far from delinquent and very focuse...

Source Though Achebe's Things Fall Apart   (1958) is often cited and used as the beginning of the modern African novel written in English (the book being the first to receive critical global acclaim), it was not necessarily the first novel published in Africa. Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford's  Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation , published in 1911, has been cited as, probably, the first African novel written in English. Similarly, Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo's (from South Africa)  The Girl who Killed to Save: Nongqawuse the Liberator  published in 1935 is regarded as first African Play in English. In any discussion of initiatory works, especially those in relation to literary works, a distinction should be made between writing and publication with the latter being usually the preferred index. And in so far as recognition could be a function of distribution and, consequently, acceptance, it possibly could be that there was an African novel,...

This year's Caine Prize for African Writing shortilst, released on May 15, was dominated by Nigerians. This emphaises Nigeria's long-held and enviable position as the powerhouse of quality and prodigious Literature on the continent; perhaps only South Africa can 'compete'. Four of the five stories that made up this year's shortlist were by Nigerians. The fifth story is by a Sierra Leonean. Nigeria has produced such great writers as the Nobel Laureate, Akinwande Oluwole (Wole) Soyinka ; the Man Booker International Prize Winner, Chinua Achebe ; Elechi Amadi; John Pepper Clark; Ola Rotimi ; and others. One can also mention many of the new generation of writers such as Chuma Nwokolo ; the Booker Prize Winner, Ben Okri ; the Orange Prize Winner, Chimamanda Adichie ; and others. We can talk of Nigerian writers forever. According to the Chair of Judges, Gus Casely-Hayford, The Shortlist was selected from 96 entries from 16 African countries. They are all outstanding ...

The vast number of written languages means that we would need translators to be able to read literature from different areas of the globe. Today, translators have made it possible to read books originally written in Sanskrit, Arabic, Japanese, Cyrillic, Korean, French, Russian etc. in any other language. But translators are humans and do take liberties in their translations. This problem arises because language is not formulaic and therefore lacks the one-to-one mapping. Certain phrases are incapable of being rendered in any other language apart from the one it was written in without losing its meaning, essence, beauty, and literary purpose. The work of translators is therefore cut-out for them: translate the work the best way possible. But there is a trap here: there is no best way. The best way depends on the objective of the translator: is the translator seeking beauty? true-to-text? readability? These would determine the outcome of the translation. And publishers also complica...

Oscar and Lucinda  (Faber and Faber, 1988; 512) by Peter Carey won the Booker Prize in 1988. It was also short-listed for the Best of the Booker in 1993 to celebrate the award's 25th anniversary alongside such books as Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (the winner), The Conservationist  by Nadine Gordimer, Disgrace  by J. M. Coetzee, The Ghost Road by Pat Barker, and The Siege of Krishnapur  by J. G. Farrell.  Oscar and Lucinda  is a quasi-romance, quasi-historical, novel narrated by the great grandson of Oscar Hopkins but in an omnipresent manner. The story, though a narration, explored the pathways, decisions, eccentricities, trials and tribulations, and weirdness of Oscar Hopkins and Lucinda Leplastrier. The story traces the lives of these two eccentrics before they met on the Leviathan  on their way to Sydney and after they arrived. It details their inchoate love affair, their problems, and their doom. Oscar Hopkins brought up ...

This year is supposed to be the Year of Russian Literature , meaning that I begin to read and acquaint myself with Russian Literature and be able to talk on them. No particular Russian authors were listed; the only requirement is for the author to be from Russian. So far, I have only two books:  War and Peace  by Leo Tolstoy and  The Government Inspector  by Nikolai V. Gogol. Regardless, Russian Literature will be incomplete without certain classic names and it was only a matter of time that I read some of these names. This week I have added two Russian books - by the same author - to my library. They are those that were over-recommended by friends and which I (or a friend) happen to find at the Legon Bookshop. I am ultra-conservative when it comes to books and so when I say I have purchased a book or added a book to my library, I mean a physical book to a physical library. The following are the books: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. [From th...

Readers love to read. That is it. Nothing more. A reader usually either has a book in mind or lined-up even when he has about two or three others in progress. By the way I do not read more than one book at a time; but I have been distracted with my reading - several times - by books that are nudging at the base of my mind, knocking harder and questioning why they have been kept on the shelf for that long a time. Consequently, book after book after book, a reader grazes his way through tonnes of words, sentences, paragraphs, pages, leaving in his wake countless books. As a reader - and I suppose you are one because you are here reading this - do you leave days between the completion of one book and the beginning of another to cogitate over the previous read? If so, what is the average number of days do you leave? Or do you pick another book just after turning over the last page? (Like I mostly do). It is true that there are times when it is difficult to read, to even pick a book and ...

Art is usually marked by epochs. For literary writings such epochs include the Medieval, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Romantic Period, the Transcendental Movement, the Victorian Period, the Realism, Naturalism, Existentialism, Modernism and others. Most of these eras are not distinct and there are overlaps. Sometimes one era would begin and end within a longer era. These timelines, though sometimes specific to countries, do have a universal application. Jack Kerouac's  On the Road  (1957; 291 - Penguin Books) is regarded as the flag-post of an epoch the author, it is cited, to have named. The Beat Generation, spanning a period of roughly two decades - from the end of the Second World War (1945) to 1965 - included such beautiful poets as Allen Ginsberg. This postwar period is marked by wanton search for happiness, freedom, self-discovery, and the meaning of life. The individuals in this period are like just-released cage birds. They fluttered across Ameri...

My First Coup D'etat - Memories from the Last Decades of Africa (Bloomsbury, 2012; 318) by John Dramani Mahama is a memoir spanning the period of his childhood to the time he arrived from Russia after his postgraduate degree. Though this is a memoir of the author, it is also his memories in relation to his family, his country - Ghana, and Africa as a whole. John Dramani Mahama talks about his childhood experiences in all the places he has lived - Damongo, Busunu, Accra, Tamale, Nigeria, and Russia. However, the major subject that runs through this memoir is the numerous coups that plagued the country and the continent during the period and their effects on him and his family; but more especially the effect of the 1966 coup that toppled Nkrumah's government of which his father was a Minister of State.  Mahama's father was among several other government politicians who were arrested and detained after the coup. The most conspicuous effect of the author's father...

On October 6, 2012 I began collecting information of banned African books . I wanted to create this database and share with readers. It's always fun going through list of books that were at a point in time banned and the reason why it was banned. Sometimes words as innocuous as 'love' could get a book banned, at other times it's the expression of love across race. The data shows that in Africa there are three major reasons why books are banned and these are geographically distributed. In Apartheid South-Africa, any book that showed that blacks were humans and have emotions were banned. Thus, books that touches on the negative effects of racial discrimination were banned. Most of Nadine Gordimer's books were banned for this very reason. In Africa's Arab States - Algeria, Sudan, etc - books are banned for being sexually explicit and or if they derogatorily, or are seen to be, in its treatment of religion. In other parts of Africa like Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, po...

Readers read. It is that simple. Yet, it is more difficult than that. With the tons of books published every day it is a (positive) nightmare entering a bookshop and buying a book. In fact, it can take hours to choose between titles and if the budget for books is tight, allowing one to purchase only two or three books, then the method, procedure, decision-making process, of choosing a book becomes even more imperative. This problem has exacerbated with the introduction of self-publishing platforms. Today, anyone anywhere can publish a book without going through those large monolithic publishing companies. The appearance of self-published books has multiplied the books one can choose from, even within a genre. Another platform that has expanded the population of books is the introduction of e-books and e-readers. What the twenty-first century has done is to revolutionise book publication and reading; if the twentieth century is the Green Revolution, then the twenty-first century is...

Unlike novels, or even novellas, plays focus on a micro-theme or subject matter and treat it in a way as to make the observer (or reader) think and to effect a change, possibly. Again, unlike novels and novellas which are always originally meant to be read (but which have recently been adapted to the screens), plays are written for the stage and therefore their message is taken in as and when they unfold and the curtains furl and must therefore be short and precise and employing different theatrical devices grab the attention of listeners and deliver their messages. Thus, a play must dramatise events. And Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector  (1836; translated and adapted by D. J. Campbell) meets these features excellently. The Government Inspector is a satirical and comic representation of corruption in the public service of Tsarist Russia with cartoonish characters. Officials in a town, headed by a Mayor, receive information of the visit of a Government Inspector travel...