25 New Books by African Writers You Should Read
There has never been a better time than right now to be a reader of African literature, especially in the United States (historically, an underdeveloped nation in this regard). Of course, we’re still...
View Article23 Books to Be Excited for in March
Even though it is technically our job to be aware of (and read) all the best new books, forever, this can sometimes feel like a daunting proposition. So it is that we appeal to our friends and...
View ArticleA. Igoni Barrett on Nigeria, Language, and Striving for the Universal
The following conversation took place on March 23, 2016 as part of Mic’s Q&A series, Pass the Mic. Jamilah King: I’m a staff writer at Mic and my work focuses on race and culture, and I’m honored...
View ArticleTen Writers and The Sports They Should Write About
George Plimpton, the floppy-haired godfather of participatory journalism, once observed that the pleasure of sports was “the chance to indulge the cessation of time itself,” which was just the kind of...
View ArticleIs the Caine Prize for Emergent African Writing, or the Best African Writing?
This essay has been adapted from a piece originally published in the second volume of Oduor Oduku’s KUT Anthology. It’s hard to tell the story of contemporary African literature without talking about...
View ArticlePlease Stop Talking About the “Rise” of African Science Fiction
Whenever I see an article that starts with “The Rise of. . .” I think of dough. When it’s applied to African science fiction, I picture an endlessly rising (and falling) dough that will never become...
View ArticleAppropriating Their Way Into Existence: How Black Writers Upended Autofiction
In a 2020 piece in The New Republic titled “Can a Black Novelist Write Autofiction,” novelist Tope Folarin argues that, by design of the publishing industry, the artistic movement that is “autofiction”...
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