I have been thinking recently about how once a story, poem, essay (whatever container holds it) exists in the world, the storyteller no longer holds the pen. The readers bring so much of themselves to the page that when they finish, they leave with a completely different experience from the writer, and even every other reader. I love that

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu is a writer and queer liberation activist whose work is a luminous refusal of silence. His debut novel, And Then He Sang a Lullaby, dares to imagine queer love in a world […]

Mumbi Kanyogo is a Kenyan writer and researcher whose work wrestles with the intimate geographies of care, resistance, solidarity, and reimagining. Whether writing about the contradictions of domestic labour, the hollow gestures of imperial apology, […]

One of the stories I heard about her growing up was the women’s communities she fostered, creating solidarity networks and systems of care for those who didn’t have the privileges of protection in her village. She saw the world end and created pockets of new worlds, visions of something else. If she could do that, then I often think how can I not? You know?

African writers and publishers should place themselves at the forefront of innovating both the forms and formats of fiction. 

‘Pemi Aguda & Uche Okonkwo in conversation about “Form and Destiny”

if a poem is intended to “move” readers, as in, enact a kind of change that leaves one different than before they encountered it, it should be especially attuned to detail, to sense and memory.

I think it is important for every writer to define what “winning” is for them. They have to discover what gives them fulfilment or value because writing, the act of putting words on paper for oneself or for others, is quite different from the industry that has sprung up around writing. 

A Short Talk is a series of short interviews and conversations with writers, editors, artists, and cultural workers across Africa and the Black diaspora. It is conceived as a companion (not an abridgement or summary) […]

Two visual artists: Khaled Olufemi Mamah (Fhemy.raw) and Sambacor Konate (Le Jardin Jolof) discuss African art, fashion, photography, masks, history, and griot tradition in Mali and other parts of West Africa. They speak in the […]