Interviews Matthew Davis Ugandan novelist and short-story writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s first novel, Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013 and was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize in 2014. She was awarded the 2014 Commonwealth Short-Story Prize for her story Lets Tell This Story Properly, published by Granta, and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction 2018 to support her writing. Her first full story collection, Manchester Happened, was published by Oneworld in May 2019. Retitled Let’s Tell This Story Properly, the collection was published in the US in July 2019. She lives in Manchester with her husband and son and lectures in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. While Makumbi was a fellow at the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center at George Mason University this past spring, she talked with Matthew Davis, the center’s founding director. Here they discuss how westerners and Africans read African literature differently, writing for Ugandans, and how eighteen years in England has changed her. Matthew Davis: Jennifer, welcome. I want to start by discussing your novel, Kintu, which is in many ways a modern classic of world literature. It begins in 1750, when Kintu Kidda sets out for the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda kingdom. The novel follows the descendants of Kintu as they struggle with a curse he unleashed as he made his way to the capital in the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2019-08-06 13:42:31 UTC ]
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The influencer and Slay in Your Lane co-author talks about her journey via Twitter to become a writer, and channelling her experience of social media into debut novel The List“Honestly, I’m a better painter than I am a writer,” says Yomi Adegoke, cackling, as she takes a sip of prosecco.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-01 08:00:07 UTC ]
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Lamya H’s powerful memoir Hijab Butch Blues is an honest grappling with what it means to be queer, to be a devout hijabi Muslim person who resists gender normativity, to love faith and community. Seeking other queer women in Islam as a young person, H wonders if Maryam, whom no man has touched,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-29 11:12:00 UTC ]
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As a fiction writer, I’ve always felt compelled, memoir style, to pore over my life’s timeline. But in a novel, I can erase, revise, smash, crash, reconstruct, and transfigure that squiggly narrative. A novel has no obligation to mirror or represent anything familiar, recognizable, or real. And... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-28 08:52:54 UTC ]
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning author was always willing to experiment with his prose, pacing and narration, crafting an oeuvre that varied wildly in style and structure. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2023-06-16 17:42:27 UTC ]
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Ohio State University professor emeritus Harvey J. Graff praises a new wave of very young authors all trying to change the world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Before I dedicated my life to taking pot-shots at the nature of the universe—I mean, before I became a science fiction writer—I was a frightened child. Death scared me, but living was the constant terror. My father told me I had chosen this. I had come to him in a dream before I was born […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-14 08:53:04 UTC ]
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One of my moments of greatest relief as a writer—equal, perhaps, to the swell and crest of learning that my first novel would be published—was when, decades ago, my Intro to Creative Writing professor assigned Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and I arrived at this passage: “Very few... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-06 08:53:36 UTC ]
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The American author talks about growing up queer in a family of ‘wolves’, poverty and class in the US, and the 19th-century writers who inspired his latest novelBrandon Taylor writes quickly. “I can type almost as fast as I can think,” he says. The first draft of his debut novel, the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-03 10:00:28 UTC ]
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Author tells Hay literary festival he needs to ‘get past’ the knife attack he suffered before writing anything elseSalman Rushdie is writing a book about being stabbed on stage in New York last year, an attack which left him without sight in one eye, the author told the Hay literary... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-01 20:20:47 UTC ]
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For 17 books, Luis Alberto Urrea has highlighted the joys and sorrows of life along the U.S.-Mexican border, a territory which moves with its peoples, no matter the walls we build on the land and in our hearts. Through his memoir Nobody’s Son, novels like The House of Broken Angels, his essay... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The Presence of the Past in Good Night, Irene: A Conversation with Luis Alberto Urrea, by Renee H. Shea Interviews [email protected] Fri, 05/26/2023 - 13:30 The author’s mother, Phyllis Irene McLaughlinAward-winning writer Luis Alberto Urrea... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-05-26 18:30:53 UTC ]
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The third day of the U.S. Book Show was capped off on an entertaining note with a keynote given by Matthew Gray Gubler; the actor-turned-children’s book author-illustrator, who is known for his role as Dr. Spencer Reid on 'Criminal Minds,' made a segue into the literary world with the 2019... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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We were enamored with the Kindle Scribe when we reviewed it, but we weren't blind to its shortcomings, including its limited editing capabilities. Now, Amazon has rolled out an update for the device, which solves some of the issues we had with it and makes it a much better option for... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-05-23 05:17:53 UTC ]
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Haymarket Books is establishing a writing fellowship program that emphasizes mentorship and professional development to support the work of incarcerated individuals and others impacted by the criminal legal system. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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He exploded into the tweedy world of literature, a young, pouting and outrageously brash crusader for prose. Our writer remembers her encounters with the novelist, whose smarts and chutzpah confounded his peers‘You’ll be reading me every now and then at least until about 2080, weather... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-22 05:00:48 UTC ]
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Some in the book industry have already begun exploring automation of its pitches to readers. We took this functionality for a test drive“Blurb writing is a mini art form,” Iris Murdoch once wrote in a letter to former Penguin blurb writer Elizabeth Buchan. And like many other art forms,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-16 09:00:05 UTC ]
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Mother’s Day was never a real holiday to my mother—more about marketing than raising me. No white carnations or special dinners for her. But that my memoir about her, Irma: The Education of a Mother’s Son, was published just before this Mother’s Day would make her smile. Likewise, that I have... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-12 13:21:24 UTC ]
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AAPI Communities in Conversation will feature a series of panels centered on Asian American and Pacific Islander voices, books, cultures, and experiences, and feature authors, creators, and librarians. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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First-time authors Alice Carrière, Tereh Shelton Harris, and Kelsey James will discuss their forthcoming books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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MacArthur Fellow and National Book Award–winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates talked about the war on books, the imbalance of power, and learning as liberation at the PEN America World Voices Festival on May 11. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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