Interviews Eloghosa Osunde and Okwiri Oduor. Photo of Oduor by Chelsea Bieker. It’s hard to argue with Booker Prize–winning author Damon Galgut’s assertion that 2021 was “a great year for African writing.” And as WLT’s “New African Voices” issue helped make clear, 2022 is shaping up to be one as well. Here, then, are two debut novelists who give us every reason to believe the richness and variety of writing from the continent is no passing trend: Nigerian Eloghosa Osunde, author of Vagabonds!, a kaleidoscopic vision of Lagos’s outcasts and outlaws (published in March by Riverhead Books); and Kenyan Okwiri Oduor, author of Things They Lost, which captures a vivid, incantatory world through the eyes of a solitary twelve-year-old girl (published in April by Scribner). Anderson Tepper: Eloghosa, did you set out to write Vagabonds! as a novel or as a collection of vignettes of life in Lagos that you then stitched into a cohesive whole? Eloghosa Osunde: Neither. I set out to write a book of fiction where the individual stories were given momentum by a narrator’s perspective, in a particular sequence, to create a specific rhythm. Beyond the above categories, this book is that. Tepper: Tell us more about the animating spirits of Lagos and particularly Tatafo, the book’s fiery, gossipy, all-seeing narrator? Osunde: They are angels and monitoring spirits moving in favor of Eko, who is the chief spirit of the city, their creator.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2022-04-21 13:41:40 UTC ]
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Three Black women novelists make their debut with tales of inheritance, friendship, and alternate futures. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'Fourteen Days,' the Authors Guild shows off its storytellers, including Dave Eggers, Celeste Ng, Scott Turow, Mira Jacob, Tommy Orange, Tess Gerritsen, R. L. Stine, Weike Wang and Ishmael Reed. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-02-06 16:00:00 UTC ]
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The If I Survive You author on the suspense of the Booker ceremony, Americans’ warped view of the Caribbean, and writing his next novel on the roadJonathan Escoffery, 43, was born in Texas and lives in Oakland, California. His debut, If I Survive You, about a second-generation Jamaican in Miami,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-27 18:00:42 UTC ]
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Temim Fruchter’s debut novel centers around a young woman, Shiva, seeking answers about her family’s past after the death of her father. Told in revolving perspectives, between women in Shiva’s family and a mysterious, omniscient narrator, the book explores the interior lives of women,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-24 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Check out these 8 gothic science fiction novels! They're sure to both terrorize and entertain you in equal measure! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-24 11:34:00 UTC ]
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In Kaveh Akbar's brilliant debut novel, 'Martyr!', an Iranian American man in addiction recovery becomes obsessed with the concept of martyrdom. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-22 11:00:10 UTC ]
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Katherine Min's Korean American debut novel was ignored. After she died in 2019, publishers worked to put out her second novel, 'The Fetishist.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-18 11:00:57 UTC ]
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The Modern Library Torchbearers series, which spotlights women writers throughout history, will reissue four novels by Elaine Kraf, which were originally published between 1969 and 1979. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The debut novel 'Dead in Long Beach, California,' is a sharp, dazzling turn for Compton-raised author Venita Blackburn, who made her name with lightning-fast fiction. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 11:00:44 UTC ]
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Yep—noted art book publisher, comic book writer, and all-purpose hero Keanu Reeves is back to bless the darkest timeline with a novel. The Book of Elsewhere, which will be published by Del Rey on July 23, 2024, was co-written with China Miéville, and is set in the world of the BRZRKR comics that... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-10 15:27:59 UTC ]
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In October, I received an email from an editor at Toronto-based Coach House Books. It was a simple request for me to provide a blurb for the book jacket of the latest book by R.M. Vaughan, the brilliantly titled Pervatory. Except there wasn’t anything simple about it: Vaughan, who I referred to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-20 09:49:37 UTC ]
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New York City in the mid-aughts set the backdrop for stylistically unique graphic narratives on a common theme—women at a pivotal moment of early adulthood and the transformative nature of friendships—which tied for the top spot on our annual graphic novel critics poll this year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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There is no denying that African literature is having a moment on the global literary stage. In 2021, African writers took the literary world by storm. It is in light of this that the South African writer Damon Galgut said in his acceptance speech at the 2021 Booker Prize ceremony that “2021 was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-18 09:49:40 UTC ]
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Another year, another crop of newly-minted literary honorees. From the Pulitzer to the Booker, the Nebula to the Edgar, here are the winners of the biggest book prizes of 2023. Congratulations to all! * PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION Awarded for distinguished fiction published in book form during... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-14 09:52:44 UTC ]
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Science fiction made me want to be a writer. As a child in the ‘90s I read Interstellar Pig because my older sister loved it, and that’s when it started—a lifelong obsession with alternate universes, aliens, time travel, dystopia; a compulsion to read and eventually tell stories to make sense of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-12 09:52:39 UTC ]
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Palestine, Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Joe Sacco’s seminal nonfiction graphic novel about Gaza, which pioneered the medium of “comics journalism” upon its publication over twenty years ago, has been rushed back into print in response to surging demand. First published across nine issues by... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-11 17:26:58 UTC ]
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Poet, Translator, Mirror: A Conversation with Miho Kinnas, by Renee H. Shea Interviews [email protected] Tue, 12/05/2023 - 15:32 Two-time Pushcart Prize nominee Miho Kinnas recently published Waiting for Sunset to Bury Red Camellias, her third book... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-12-05 21:32:32 UTC ]
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I asked ChatGPT to improve my latest novel and lost no sleep over the results. But I do worry about diverse voices being crowded out This summer two worlds – literature and technology – collided. News stories began appearing about authors suing OpenAI and Meta for using their works to train... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-12-01 06:00:07 UTC ]
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From manga to superhero comics to graphic novels and more, here are 8 of the best new comics and graphic novels out December 2023! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-11-30 11:35:00 UTC ]
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Absurd Ventures, the new creative studio from Rockstar Games co-founder and ex-creative director Dan Houser, has announced its first projects. As it happens, neither of them are video games, at least not yet. The first of these two new universes is called American Caper,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-11-29 21:02:58 UTC ]
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