Books
Big of Ego, Sensitive of Eyes
To a generation of Nigerians, the character Àjàlá might as well be an urban legend.
The Nigeria Prize 2022: Garlands for New Blood
If it wasn’t obvious enough that the leading poetic voices on the continent now belong to a new generation of writers bred in the jungles of the internet and raised in the angst of 21st-century dilemmas and preoccupations, the new NLNG prize shortlist has made it clearer.
The Longest Memory
I am more familiar with the poetry of Fred D’Aguiar than his prose, so I was thrilled when I discovered his debut novel at the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) in Accra where I was a writer-in-residence in April earlier this year.
Are God’s Children Little Broken Things?
Ifeakandu, in his debut, reveals the mundane and daring lives of gay men in Nigeria, conveying their everyday experiences with compassion.
Born to Die
They will ask me when I know, I’ll sigh and say not so long ago. It happened in fragments—piece by piece you came and filled up the empty space—and in a matter of time, you became my world.
Idza Luhumyo’s Hair Politics
A piece of intrusion fantasy, its prose carefully measured, tied to a Black woman’s hair.
The First Responders the FDNY Left Behind
De Blasio is out, sharks are in, and lieutenant paramedic Anthony Almjoera joins the pod to talk about Riding the Lightning, his new book about his wrenching pandemic year, how he thinks the FDNY let down and left behind medical first responders, and much more. WARNING: This episode includes conversation about suicide and suicidal thoughts.
Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike’s Double Wahala
In Nigerian popular culture, ‘double wahala’ is a Pidgin English phrase that was made popular by ace Afrobeat musician and activist, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
On Muslim YA Novels
While the folks in my YA books were experience a blushing first romance, I was trying to reconcile pop culture with the teachings of my conservative Muslim upbringing.
In Challenge of a Single Story
Kufre Usanga is a PhD student in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, where she researches petroculture and Indigenous literatures. Usanga holds the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Award.
EXTRA-METATEXTUALITY: A REVIEW OF CHUCK KLOSTERMAN’S THE NINETIES: A BOOK
In his book "The Nineties", Chuck Klosterman is not interested in what’s conventionally understood or easily graspable but in the layers that either exist deep underneath or hover loftily. It’s what makes his essays and books so fun—it allows us to reconsider accepted wisdom.
What Kind of Writer Accuses Libraries of Stealing?
a wrangle on the topic of Controlled Digital Lending
