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The Golden Baobab Prizes for African children’s literature have revealed the 14 stories that made it onto their longlist for 2014. Selected from a total of 210 stories received from 13 countries across the continent, this longlist showcases some of the finest African writers and African children’s stories today. With four writers each, Ghana and South Africa are the four most represented nationalities on the longlist. Other countries that had writers on the list were Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. The longlist represents stories submitted to the Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Books and the Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Books. No story from the Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Writers made it onto the 2014 longlist. Speaking on the prizes’ evaluation and selection processes, the Prize Coordinator, Delali Kumapley commented, “Stories submitted to the Golden Baobab Prizes go through an incredibly exhaustive evaluation process. We have a team of about thirty people fro...

Last year, it was announced that books by Americans would be allowed entry into the Man Booker Prize. Whereas some readers and fans saw this as an unwanted deviation and a loss of focus for the renowned Prize, others saw it as the correction of a long-drawn anomaly by accepting all English-speaking countries. Prior to this announcement the Man Booker only allowed entries from British, Irish and Commonwealth authors. British authors lead this year's longlist of 13 books with five nominations. This is followed by American authors who enter the Prize for the first time with four nominations. The rest of the nominations is held by two Irish writers and one Australian writer. Below is the list: Joshua Ferris (US) – To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Richard Flanagan (Australia) – The Narrow Road to the Deep North Karen Joy Fowler (US) – We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Siri Hustvedt (US) – The Blazing World Howard Jacobson (Britain) – J Paul Kingsnorth (Britain) – The Wake...

The first Faulks' novel I read was Devil May Care , a story written to mark the centenary celebration of he creator of the James Bond character, Ian Fleming. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the book. Perhaps, I would have liked the movie better. This is due to the different demands I place on movies and books. I expect more intellectual discourse from books, and more action (though I hate war movies) from movies. Consequently, this book stayed on my bookshelf for almost three and half years. I was scared of opening it, until I ran-out of books to read. This is one of those books you read and begin to wonder why you have not read it all this while, especially when it has been staring you in the face for years, begging you to pick it up and at least read the first line. According to the blurb ' ...Sebastian Faulks creates a work of fiction that is as tragic as A Farewell to Arms  and as sensuous as The English Patient .' And having read both books I should more than agr...

The Caine Prize for African Writing 2014 brings together the five shortlisted authors' stories along with 12 other stories from the best new writers. Insightful, arresting and entertaining - this collection reflects the richness and range of current African writing.  Caine Prize 2014 Shortlisted Stories : Phosphorescence Diane Awerbuck (South Africa) Chicken Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia) The Intervention Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe) The Gorilla’s Apprentice Billy Kahora (Kenya) My Father’s Head Okwiri Oduor (Nigeria) The Caine Prize African Writers’ Workshop Stories 2014: The Lifebloom Gift Abdul Adan (Somalia/Kenya) The Gonjon Pin Martin Egblewogbe (Ghana) As A Wolf Sweating Your Mother’s Body   Clifton Gachagua (Kenya) Pam Pam Lawrence Hoba (Zimbabwe) Lily in the Moonlight Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria) Running Elnathan John (Nigeria) The Murder of Ernestine Masilo Violet Masilo (Zimbabwe) All the Parts of Mi Isabella Matambanadzo (Zimbabwe) Blood Wor...

Jeane had once said that men were not like women, that once they had possessed a woman it was as thought nothing had happened and they just wanted to move on to another. [64] The difference between living and dying was not one of quality, only of time. [67] Constant shelling is a cure for impure thoughts. I never think of women. They belong to a different existence. [146] Men are such timid creatures, really, You have to be gentle with them. Make them feel safe. To begin with, anyway. [235] They boasted in a mocking way of what they had seen and done; but in their sad faces wrapped in rags he saw the burden of their unwanted knowledge. [270] It's better to have a malign providence than an indifferent one. [278] I heard a voice. There was something beyond me. All my life I had lived on the presumption that there was no existence beyond...flesh, the moment of being alive...then nothing. I had searched in superstition... Rats. But there was nothing. Then I h...

Testament of the Seasons  (2013) is an anthology of poems in fourteen segments by Mawuli Adzei collected over a period of three decades. The poems cover wide ranging issues: from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the bombing of the World Trade Centre; from the Arab Springs to the Cold War and Holocaust; from love to identity and race and death. Mawuli's anthology consist of poems about issues that has affected his world views. He talks about the hegemony of the West as wells as the tribalism at home and his love for his people. Mawuli would not be bolted to a single place; he is  'neither a signifyin' monkey/ Nor a simulating chameleon'.  Yet, he is a member of his clan; their mirror image for if you  just touch my face/ You touch a clan. The anthology opens with  Winds of Change  - a collection of poems about the recent seemingly stochastic uprisings that swept large parts of North Africa and Middle East. The segment opens with  Springtime , a poe...

There comes a time when even a hobby suffers from a person's silences and inactivity. Sometimes it becomes pronounced that going back to what we love becomes a tortuous task in itself. I have suffered this, though not to the tortuous end. This year has been like no other year. It has taken me to the extremes of events. I have lost a job and found one. I have known fear and I have been rescued. It is in my moments of desperation that I realise I could not muster the necessary energy to read as many books as I used to read. I discovered that I am not one of those who could lose themselves and seek solace in books when faced with obstacles. In such situations, my mind takes control over me and does its own thinking, unaided, uncontrolled. It is for this reason that my reading in April was highly affected with only two books . I just could not bring myself to read. It is like a writer suffering from a writer's block. May in Review This block entered May. I thought that...

Last week I brought the fact that most of the successful and famous African writers live outside of the continent, mostly in the UK and US, up for discussion. Today, I would want us to discuss another interesting trend, the immigrant stories of the African Diasporean Novelist. Any avid reader might by now have found out that most diasporean African novelists have written, at one point or another, an immigrant story. They are common in short story anthologies and also as independent novels and novellas. There are countless such stories. From Tayib Salih's  Seasons of Migration to the North , Benjamin Kwakye's The Other Crucifix , Brian Chikwava's Harare North , and Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah , these stories are not unique to a certain generation. (I am told NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names  is also an immigrant story. I have not read this because I thought it a complete novel, as was wrongly marketed, instead of linked short stories, as I have been re...

I used to bring up topics for discussions and even though participation is sometimes low, I enjoy the few comments that do come in. We need to do a lot to promote African literature. There is a trend among African writers which if not corrected could prevent some wonderful writers from being seen. The majority of Contemporary African writers live outside the continent. (And before anyone takes me on on what I mean by 'African writers', I refer to those writers whose names, when they should come up for awards, would be linked to a country on the continent. Some Africans have chosen to be Africans when it suits them.) It seems that if you are a writer on this continent and you have not won any major prize - especially the Caine Prize, you will remain anonymous forever even if you have been lucky enough to have been published by a publisher outside of the continent. Consequently, most writers either dream of winning some major award or of migrating to live partially or perman...

When it comes to reading, I am omnivorous. I read a lot of materials. However, even omnivores have their choicest food if it comes down to choosing. And no one makes me realise this than  Kinna . More than 98 percent of our discussions are centred on books and most often that is my most amazing moments. I love to talk about books - read, unread, released, newly published, etc. I just love books. When Kinna saw a post of some books I have read, she wondered whether my shelf is depleted of books. And alas, she was right. If you have fewer books to choose from, you have to make do with all books you have skipped over time. Consequently, when I saw that a Used Books dealer has spread his wares on the pavement of the Madina New Road road, I decided to take a look. What I have found, after years of searching and buying books, is that one could find strange and sought-after titles in such obscure locations. Except that the condition of the book cannot be guaranteed. In a country wh...

My projections were to read three books in April but in the end I read only two. Too bad. This means that I am falling behind my ultimate goal of reading 60 books. I don't know when I can speed up. I should have read 20 books by the end of April; instead, I had read only 15. The following were the books I read: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger . This is a unique love story. What if Time Travel is possible but isn't under the control of the person? What if it is a genetic defect? That is the problem with Henry and how will Clare, the eventual wife take it? In such situations, Time Travel is more dangerous than one would have thought.  Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell . This was a selection of the Writers Project of Ghana. It was my second reading in three years and the this has helped. In this period of mass hysteria, when the killer is praised for being the saviour and the victim is consistently blamed for the actions of the killer, no book is a...

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize announced its 2014 shortlist on April 30 for the different geographic areas: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean and Pacific. Africa Ikanre by   Adelehin Ijasan (Nigeria) All Them Savages  by   Michelle Sacks (South Africa) Let’s Tell This Story Properly by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda) Asia Grandmother by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow (Singapore) A Day in the Death  by Sara Adam Ang (Singapore) Canada and Europe The Night of Broken Glass by Jack Wang (Canada) On The Other Side by Idrissa Simmonds (Canada) Agnes Agnes Agnes by Luiza Sauma (United Kingdom) Household Gods by Tracy Fells (United Kingdom) Killing Time  by Lucy Caldwell (United Kingdom) Caribbean Cowboy by Helen Klonaris (Bahamas) Sending for Chantal by Maggie Harris (Guyana) Miss Annie Cooks Fish by Charmaine Rousseau (Trinidad and Tobago) Pacific The Dog and the Sea  b...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes  (FP: 1892; 302) is one of those books that manage to surprise you regardless of how familiar you have become with their titles. The surprise with this book was not in the character or the story-line(s) but the genre. I had always perceived this book as a complete novel. This perception might have been strengthened by the various movie adaptations I have watched. Even when I purchased it, this did not change. So you can imagine my surprise when I finally picked it up to read and suddenly discovered that it is a collection of short stories. The story features the eponymous character Sherlock Holmes as he solved one mystery after the other, sometimes aided by his friend Dr Watson, and it was he who narrated the stories. The eccentric Sherlock Holmes did not care much about the mysteries he solved but to any observing eyes what he did is nothing different from the art of Houdini. Sherlock has more than five ...

Exactly a week ago, the Caine Prize announced its 2014 shortlist. This year's shortlist was announced by the Nobel Prize winner and Patron of the Caine Prize Wole Soyinka, as part of the opening ceremonies for the UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 celebration in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The Shortlist comprises: Diane Awerbuck (South Africa) " Phosphorescence " in Cabin Fever ( Umuzi , Cape Town. 2011) Efemia Chela (Ghana/Zambia) " Chicken " in Feast, Famine and Potluck ( Short Story Day Africa , South Africa. 2013) Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe) " The Intervention " in Open Road Review , issue 7, New Delhi. 2013 Billy Kahora (Kenya) " The Gorilla's Apprentice " in Granta (London. 2010) Okwiri Oduor (Kenya) " My Father's Head " in Feast, Famine and Potluck ( Short Story Day Africa , South Africa. 2013) Tendai Huchu is the author of The Hairdresser of Harare .  Billy Kahora's Urban Zoning  was nominated in 2012 Ca...

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. [7] A Frenchman or Russian could not have written that. It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs. [8] You do not know her, but she has a soul of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men. [12-3] it was not merely that Holmes has changed his costume. His expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime. [20] Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting. [21] As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify. [42-3] ...

Chuma Nwokolo may not be a household name. But those who have listened to him read or have read his books have come to appreciate his stories. To such fortunate folks Chuma remains an excellent author with a keen sense of observation and of humour. Recently the author of Diaries of a Dead African  and The Ghost of Sani Abacha  released another collection of short stories titled How to Spell Naija in 100 Short Stories  to mark the centenary anniversary of the amalgamation of the pre-Nigerian states and the formation of the country Nigeria. Those who have read Chuma have come to appreciate his unique writing styles and his prodigiousness. First, according to the author his attention span is too short for a novel, so that even the novel-like DOADA is really three interlinked novellas. Consequently, the author has resorted to the short story genre to tell his stories and over time has mastered the rudiments of this genre.  The Ghost of Sani Abacha contained twenty...