News and Opinion

Silent Minaret wins first EU prize

The Silent Minaret by Ishtiyaq Shukri has been announced as the first winner for the European Union Literary Award, based in South Africa. Netherlands ambassador to South Africa, Frans Engering and the EU ambassador, Michael Lake presented him with his award: a cash prize of R25 000 (about £2,300), an invitation to the Winternachten Festival in the Netherlands and the opportunity to see his book in print. more »

Boy takes 2005 Commonwealth prize for Africa

Boy by Lindsay Collen of Mauritius has been selected as the best book from Africa for the 2005 Commonwealth Writers prize. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was chosen as the best first book. more »

Cape Town Book Fair threatens to eclipse Zimbabwe

The launch of the Cape Town Book Fair in 2006 is likely to overshadow the long-established Zimbabwe International Book Fair as international publishers and booksellers stay away from the Harare event due to the political and social evironment in Zimbabwe. The Cape Town event has been established in partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair. more »

Poetry anthology to mark anniversary of Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution

To mark the tenth anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian government of Sani Abacha, an anthology of 100 poems is to be published by Flipped Eye Publishing, a UK publishing house which specilises in poetry. more »

Absurd price for one of Africa's 100 Best Books

The Beggar's Strike, selected as one of Africa's 100 Best Books, is only available in second-hand copies, with the cheapest being US$250. Other names on the list of the 100 best are having new books published. Germano Almeida, of Cape Verde, has had his book The Last Will and Testament of Señor da Silva published in English, from the original Portuguese. One of Pepetela's latest book, Jaime Bunda, Agente Secreto, has been published in German. Moses Isegawa has had his latest novel published in the Netherlands and Mia Couto has published a children's book. more »

Solidarity campaign for Ngugi Wa Thiong'o

A grouping of top international academics is pressuring the Kenyan government to take seriously the August 2004 attack on Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and his wife Njeeri Wa Ngugi, just as the trial began in Nairobi of those arrested for the assault and of world-renowned Kenyan writer Ngugi and the rape of his wife Njeeri. more »

Writer festivals in South Africa

Two literature festivals, as well as a film and a dance festival are organised each year by the Centre for the Creative Arts, attached to the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. more »

SA writer K. Sello Duiker commits suicide

News of the untimely death of K. Sello Duiker on 19 January 2005, was received with deep sadness and shock by all who knew him. He had published two books, Thirteen Cents and The Quiet Violence of Dreams and was busy on a third, scheduled for publication later in 2005 more »

Nigerian poetry prize open for entries

The Young Poets Association of Nigeria (Yopan) is calling for entries for the Yopan/Thomson Poetry Prize, which is open to new poets from Nigeria. The prize will be awarded for the third time in 2005. This annual prize will focus on potential talent with the winner receiving N50,000 (US$386). more »

No award for Noma 2004

No award is to be made for the 2004 Noma Award for African books, as the title originally selected as winner was later found not to fulfil the conditions of entry. The jury did, however, single out four titles for honourable mention. more »

Illustrator's category added to Macmillan prize for unpublished literature

Macmillan, the UK-based educational publishing house, has announced the start of its third Writer’s Prize for Africa, which is awarded to writers of unpublished children’s literature. more »

Call for stories on animal welfare

The Kenya branch of the World Society for the Protection of Animals is seeking submissions for an anthology of short stories to be used in African schools. more »

Ahmadou Kourouma prize in its second year

The Ahmadou Kourouma prize (Prix Ahamadou Kourouma) has been established by the Geneva international book fair (Salon international du livre et de la presse de Geneve) in honour of the novelist from Cote d'Ivoire who died in December 2003. more »

French prize goes to Togo

Togolese writer Sami Tchak has won this year's "Grand Prix" for African literature, a French prize with a purse of 10,000 euros. Tchak was awarded the prize for the range of his work, according to Pana, the African news agency. Also, Albert Memmi was awarded the Grand Prix de la Francophonie (World Francophone Prize) by the French Academy. more »

World renown writers benefit Aids victims

Nadine Gordimer has edited a collection of stories by world renown writers as a project to raise funds for victims of HIV/Aids. The 21 stories which make up Telling Tales are not about HIV/Aids, but the "pleasure of reading them will help succour and support its victims", said Gordimer. more »