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African Roar has come to stay. In its second year, this annual anthology from the publishers of the StoryTime , a registered e-zine, is doing more to African Literature than what most prize-organisations dreams of doing with their prizes. Whereas the first edition featured eleven (11) authors, this one brings together fifteen (15) authors from across the continent. Mixing some old and award-winning names like the 2011 Caine Prize winning author NoViolet Bulawayo, Emmanuel Sigauke, Ivor Hartmann, Ayodele Morocco-Clarke, Zukiswa and previously unpublished authors like Isaac Neequaye, this eclectic collection, in theme, coverage and setting, from across the continent promises to be the must read anthology in a few years to come, if it hadn't taken that position already.  Edited by Emmanuel Sigauke and Ivor Hartmann, authors in the second edition include: Memory Chirere: A Tribute to Ruzvidzo Stanley Mupfudza NoViolet Bulawayo: Main Zukiswa Wanner: A Writer's Lot Hajira ...

This is an excerpt from an upcoming anthology by Nana Awere Damoah . Until now, Nana Damoah's writing has revolved around creative non-fiction, pulling out his experiences and experiences of varied people to motivate others shape their life. Most often, people are more willing to leave others dabble in their mistakes and only tweet the #RIP for facebook some few words when their crooked ways lead them to their lives. We have come to a point in time when people pity you when you're dead, afraid of telling you in the face that your ways will lead you to disaster for fear of 'hurting their feelings'. However, when you're gone they can shower you with all the advice you don't need. That's why I love Nana's two previous books: Through the Gates of Thoughts and Excursions in my Mind .  People have virtually become hypocrites, smiling and 'lol' even when they don't mean it, even when they say in their hearts 'WTF'. We are gradually becomi...

Proverb: Wonnim kuro bi mu a, wonka mu asεm Meaning: If you don't know a town, you don't talk about its affairs Context: Don't talk about something about which you are ignorant No. 4380 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

On October 10, 2011 at the Eko Hotels, an almost unknown writer, hiding under the pseudonym Mai Nasara, won the most prestigious award in Nigeria's literary calendar with his book The Missing Clock . In fact, the money attached to this award is better than most of the awards the literary world has to offer. At US$ 100,000 this prize is comparable to the Man Booker which offers the winner an astounding 50,000 Pounds; however, whereas the Booker is opened to all writers in the Commonwealth who have published a book in the awarding-year, the NLNG is awarded to a Nigerian author who has published a literary book that happen to fall within the category that the award will be going to for that year. Sounds complicated? I guess not. The award rotates amongst four literary groupings: Children Fiction (which was the awarding category in 2011), Poetry, Poetry and Drama. From a list of 126 entries, a long shortlist comprising six authors were selected. This was further shortened to th...

This review has delayed. October was a good reading month though I couldn't settle on the books when I made my projections ; however, I couldn't read one of the two books I decided to read , To Kill a Mockingbird . The following books were read: The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga. I started this book in September but the chunk of it was read in October. It is a sequel to her earlier novel Nervous Conditions. In this book, we see how hopes were dashed and aspirations squashed. We see how a nation's struggle towards independence destroyed another. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This book was read for my Top 100 Books Reading Challenge, a challenge which I'm far behind and which I'll be putting in much effort in the month of December all through to 2012. The story is about Holden Caufield and his teenage angst. Whether he is right to think so or he is suffering from teenage delusion, one thing is clear: he made statements that are true. The older w...

Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach  (2007; 166) - read for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge - seems to continue from where Thomas Hardy left off with the story of Jude and Sue in Jude the Obscure .  In this story, McEwan investigates the changes that was taking place in early 1960s: social, political and economic changes.  Using the story of Florence and Edward, McEwan writes of how the early 1960s served as the turning point in the century. During this period, the British Empire has started shrinking, with several colonists becoming independent. There was also a change in the landscape with a somewhat rapid urbanisation of rural and peri-urban areas. However, the major change that McEwan concentrated upon is the change in relationships or the idea of what marriage is or should be, the major theme in Hardy's story. He toes Hardy's course, though Florence was much stronger than Sue and Edward more foolish than Jude, for Jude made compelling arguments similar, in ...

Proverb: Akokɔhwede da Firaw ho nso ɔdware mfuturo Meaning: The francolin lives near the Volta River, yet it bathes in the sand. Context: You may have plenty of something and yet not choose to use. No. 3324 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.