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Saraba is pleased to announce the publication of its seventeenth issue on the theme of “Survival.” A word from the 1590s, “survival” implies the “act of surviving,” of “continuation after some event.” To “survive” suggests to outlive, and to continue in existence after the death of another. From Latin supervivere, “live beyond, live longer than”; from super “over, beyond” + vivere “to live.” In our recent issue, we put together poems, stories and portraits that articulate the nature and expediency of survival. The issue includes the poetry of Kelechi Nwaike, Tonye Willie-Pepple, Adeyinka Elujoba, Paul Wairia, Aisha Nelson, Jen Thorpe, Kate Hampton, Sarah Haughn, and Omukuvah Otido. It includes fiction by Damilola Yakubu, Glendaliz Camacho, and Alexander Ikawah, and non-fiction by Kabu Okai-Davies, Hal O’Leary, and Itoro Udofia. The portraits are by Nigerian photographer Logor’ Muyiwa Adeyemi. Our contributors are from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, the United Kingdom, and U.S.A. As always, ...

I love books. I can spend hours in a bookshop. Unfortunately, Ghanaian bookshops don't offer much in terms of titles and sometimes the attendants could be so arrogant. They come directly to you demanding what you want, as if you should want a title or two and just walk out like a student in search of a text book. To all you bookshop attendants, this is the 'wrongest' way to treat a bibliophile. It is more painful than a womaniser on the verge of losing his member. It denigrates us. It demeans us. This class of Mammals, referred to as Bibliophiles, make life so simple. Their Christmas and birthday wishes are the same: books. If they begin to talk about books, their eyes twinkle and bulge out, their mouths move faster than Twista and drops of saliva could be seen leaking out from the corners, and their face is set in perpetual laughter. However, getting new titles in bookshops in Ghana is more difficult than putting man on Mars. After all, NASA has started with Curio...

A lot of things might have happened in the previous year to make it an unforgettable year. There definitely were some positive events and an equally high dose of negative events. After all, who can forget the turbulence that hit the aviation industry. I have dreamt more than two occasions on avoiding to travel by air, and have actually implemented it once. Yet, this is not what defined my year. Several things did though. However, what is germane to this blog will have to do with books and reading. Ever since I reactivated my reading passion and began blogging in 2009, 2014 was the year I read the least amount of books. At 20 books, the average of was less 2 per month, though I went several months without reading a book. This amount of books in 2012 or 2013 would have been swallowed up in about two and half months of reading. But then again, this was 2014 where a lot of things happened. Below is a list of books I read in 2014, where a review is available I have linked it. Books...

First, let me say I plagiarised the words in this title. But this is not the reason why I am here. After all, I read that trilogy in 2014. I am here to apologise for my long absence from blogging. And definitely from reading. What makes book blogging different from all other blogging is that, to blog one must undertake another long activity: reading. Unless one wants to be a blogger of bookish events. But creating contents for book blogs require a lot. And I have been at it consistently, or so I would like to think (don't count my other absences), since 2009. And it has immensely benefitted my reading; and possibly my writing. My last post on this blog was on September 11, 2014. The ones before that were on July 18 and 19, 2014; and the last one before these was on June 25, 2015. There is a reason why I am going back to June. In the beginning of June 2014 I got a new job. And like most of my jobs have been this position is different from the previous one. It therefore required...

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...