Tag Archives: Literature
Hans Zell’s list of African book & reading resources
Our friends at Hans Zell Publishing maintain an extensive list of up to date links to: African organizations (other than publishers), groups, and associations that are supportive of book and journal publishing, the ‘book chain’, and reading promotion in sub-Saharan Africa. A number of dealers and suppliers of African-published books are also included, as are links to […]
George Fortune manuscripts open for research
I’m delighted to announce that the George Fortune Papers, 1869-2006 (2013 accretion with significant updates to the original finding aid) now are open for research. A small selection of items from the collection are available online. This has been a fascinating collection to work with and has the potential to support a variety of research projects. I’m personally charmed by the […]
Caine Prize for African Writing: Short list announced for 2015
New writing and writers from Africa are celebrated each year by the Caine Prize. From the site: The five writer shortlist for the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing has been announced by Chair of judges, award-winning South African writer Zoë Wicomb. In a sign of the established calibre to be found in African writing and […]
June Edit-a-thon to improve ‘African Literature’ page in Wikipedia
Africa in Words author Stephanie Santana writes: On June 4 at the upcoming African Literature Association (ALA) conference at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, Africa in Words will be hosting a ‘Wikithon’ to improve the ‘African Literature’ Wikipedia page. During a Wikithon (also often called an ‘Edit-a-thon‘), people come together to edit a particular Wikipedia page […]
Obituary for Nadine Gordimer
From Helen T. Verongos published in the New York Times on July 14, comes this obituary for the South African writer Nadine Gordimer who died at 90 on Sunday, July 13th, 2014. She never wrote an autobiography. “Autobiography,” she said in 1963, “can’t be written until one is old, can’t hurt anyone’s feelings, can’t be sued for libel, […]
Post-doc in digital humanites: Languages and literature in the South African context
VACANCY: Post–doctoral position in Digital Humanities Research Unit: Languages and Literature in the South African Context, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa. The vacancy announcement below is from the Global Outlooks :: Digital Humanities (GO::DH) email list. http://www.nwu.ac.za/p-sl/researchunit Applications for this position are invited for a period of at least one year (September 2014 to […]
Detective fiction from Southern Africa
Dr. Ranka Primorac, University of Southampton, will lead Africa’s Literary Detective: Cases from the South, a seminar on detective fiction from southern Africa this week. SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archive Group on Africa) has arranged the event for Friday 14th February 2014, 13:00-14:00 at the Seng Tee Lee Centre, Senate House Library, Malet Street, LONDON, WC1E […]
Doris Lessing obituary
The New York Times today describes how the author in 2007 “approached her house in sensible shoes to find journalists gathered at her door waiting to tell her that she had won the Nobel Prize for literature. ‘Oh, Christ!’ she said upon hearing the news. ‘I couldn’t care less.’” “Among the major influences on her […]
Écrire et publier en Afrique francophone
Conference announcement for March 2014 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: Écrire et publier en Afrique francophone. Enjeux et perspectives. Le département de français de l’University of KwaZu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg en Afrique du Sud organise un colloque sur la littérature francophone écrite et publiée en Afrique. Celui-ci aura lieu du 17 au 19 mars 2014. La littérature africaine […]
Death of poet Kofi Awoonor
The H-Net list server for Africa alerted us this week to the death of poet Kofi Awoonor, killed during the attack on Saturday, Sept. 21 at Westgate, a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. A tribute by Kwame Dawes on the Wall Street Journal‘s Speakeasy blog offers further details.
African Studies library 