The Granta emails, or How to Write About Africa revisited—notes on catalysing a moment of literary reparations, by Nkiacha Atemnkeng
I cannot count the number of times I’ve read the late Binyavanga Wainaina’s viral Granta essay, ‘How to write about…
Category: International
‘If there had been any kings in Rwanda, it was better to forget them’—Read an excerpt from Scholastique Mukasonga’s Our Lady of the Nile
The JRB presents an excerpt from Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, out now in a new edition….
‘To them, being brown was an asset, not a liability. It meant you could always fit in’—Read an excerpt from Wahala, the new novel by Nikki May
The JRB presents an excerpt from Nikki May’s debut novel, Wahala. WahalaNikki MayPenguin Random House, 2022 Read the excerpt: Boo…
[The JRB Daily] Mary Watson wins 2022 Philida Literary Award for ‘an oeuvre of literary excellence’
Mary Watson has been announced as the winner of the 2022 Philida Literary Award. The prize, established by Karina M…
[JRB Daily] ‘A transformative figure in African literature’—Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o wins PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has been announced as one of the winners of this year’s PEN America Literary Awards. Ngũgĩ was…
[The JRB Daily] Top 10 of 2021—a look back at our most popular articles of the year
With our last issue of 2021, the Fiction Issue, The JRB reached the milestone of publishing our 200th individual contributor….
Lindiwe Mabuza, 1938—2021, RIP
‘Poetry is part of the Struggle. You use the armed Struggle; you use political methods … You recite a poem….
[Fiction Issue] ‘Archival Technics’, a new short story by Patrick Flanery
The JRB presents a new short story by Patrick Flanery, which is part of a larger work. Archival Technics They say…
[Fiction Issue] ‘The Capture’, an excerpt from a work in progress by Glenn Diaz
The JRB presents an excerpt from a work in progress by Glenn Diaz. The Capture Sleep was beginning to finally…
[Fiction Issue] An excerpt from ‘Vacation’, a work in progress by Sebastian Murdoch
The JRB presents an excerpt from a work in progress, titled ‘Vacation’, by Sebastian Murdoch. ‘Oh my god, look,’ Sadie…
[Fiction Issue] ‘Khalifa did not suspect with what nostalgia he would remember those days in later life’—Read an excerpt from Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives
The JRB presents an excerpt from Afterlives, the new novel from Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in…
[Fiction Issue] ‘Sometimes it felt as if I were speaking into a body of water’—Read an excerpt from CA Davids’s new novel How to Be a Revolutionary
The JRB presents an excerpt from How to Be a Revolutionary, the new novel by CA Davids. How to Be…
[Fiction Issue] ‘Prayer was standing in front of me, in panties’—Read an excerpt from the forthcoming collection Anonymous Sex
The JRB presents an excerpt from Anonymous Sex, a forthcoming anthology edited by Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan. Anonymous SexEdited…
[Fiction Issue] ‘He was the sort of writer who saw himself as the carrier of his continent’s honour’—Read an excerpt from Timothy Ogene’s novel Seesaw
The JRB presents an excerpt from Seesaw by Timothy Ogene. SeesawTimothy OgeneSwift Press, 2021 Read the excerpt: My second and…
[Fiction Issue] ‘Filled with blood. She blinked. She closed the book, sighed’—Read an excerpt from James Han Mattson’s Reprieve
The JRB presents an excerpt from Reprieve, the new novel from James Han Mattson. ReprieveJames Han MattsonBloomsbury, 2021 Read the…
[Fiction Issue] ‘The falling man appeared out of nowhere, in the middle of the air, right before Petra’s eyes’—Read an excerpt from Louis Greenberg’s Exposure
The JRB presents an excerpt from Exposure, the new novel from Louis Greenberg. ExposureLouis GreenbergTitan, 2021 Read the excerpt: The…
[Fiction Issue] ‘The past was home. Home meant facing the past’—Read an excerpt from Colleen van Niekerk’s debut novel A Conspiracy of Mothers
The JRB presents an excerpt from A Conspiracy of Mothers by Colleen van Niekerk. A Conspiracy of MothersColleen van NiekerkLittle…
[Fiction Issue] ‘She’d often wondered how that cloak of impenetrable privilege would feel around her shoulders’—Read an excerpt from Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström’s In Every Mirror She’s Black
The JRB presents an excerpt from In Every Mirror She’s Black, the debut novel by Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström. In Every…
[The JRB Daily] ‘A great year for African writing’—Damon Galgut wins the 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction, for his novel The Promise
South African author Damon Galgut has won the 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Promise. The announcement was…
‘Startlingly good’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by Michaela Coel, creator and star of the hit TV show I May Destroy You
Michaela Coel’s Misfits blends an effervescent sense of social realism with a beguiling clarity, writes Wamuwi Mbao. Misfits: A Personal…
‘Often we know ourselves and other people by the stories we construct’—Abdulrazak Gurnah on how to write fiction
Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah received the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, an announcement that came as a welcome surprise to…
[Photo Editor] Greg Tate in Johannesburg by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. See this ten-year retrospective of his portraits. View this…
‘Nothing, virtually no project, no cultural initiative, was left unbrushed by the CIA reptilian coils’—Wole Soyinka. Read an excerpt from White Malice: The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa
The JRB presents an excerpt from Susan Williams’s new book White Malice: The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa. White…
Read an excerpt from ‘The Lumumba Business’, a new story by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, from The American Way: Stories of Invasion
The JRB presents an excerpt from the forthcoming publication The American Way: Stories of Invasion. The American Way: Stories of…
‘Tendai Huchu’s Maestro of Lonely Learning’—Read an excerpt from The African Novel of Ideas by Jeanne-Marie Jackson
The JRB presents an excerpt from Jeanne-Marie Jackson’s new book The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the…
‘You gave me permission to lean into the terrible, of both myself and the people I wrote into existence’—Read an excerpt from Akwaeke Emezi’s new book Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir
The JRB presents an excerpt from Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi. Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit…
[The JRB Daily] ‘I thought it was a prank, I really did’—Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah wins 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah. Gurnah becomes the first Black African…
[The JRB Daily] The 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist is announced—including Damon Galgut and Nadifa Mohamed
The 2021 Booker Prize shortlist has been revealed—and includes two African authors for the second time in as many years:…
[The JRB Daily] ‘It is the book I never thought I would get to write. I never thought I’d be well enough’—Susanna Clarke wins 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction for Piranesi
Susanna Clarke has been announced as the winner of the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction, for her second novel Piranesi….
‘I decided to give up writing and to rethink my life’—Karen Jennings chats to Jennifer Malec about her Booker Prize-longlisted novel, An Island
Karen Jennings was recently longlisted for the Booker Prize, for her novel An Island. Here she chats to The JRB…
A flaming dispatch from Ananda Devi’s ‘evil twin’—Yagnishsing Dawoor reviews When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me
Ananda Devi’s When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me is an impassioned investigation of poetry writing as an apparatus…
‘A compellingly affecting hero figure for the remaking of the human’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Sorrowland, the new novel by Rivers Solomon
Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland rearranges the furniture of the hardening genre of novels resolved to deal with North America’s history of…
‘To photograph Switzerland is to rephotograph it’—Sindi-Leigh McBride reviews Fernweh, Teju Cole’s latest photobook
Fernweh, Teju Cole’s latest photobook, feels like a palliative moment amid the uncertainty, loss and raw grief of the pandemic,…
How to write like a white person—Ben Williams presents notes towards a framework for reading white fiction’s ‘literature of success’
In the context of increasing scrutiny on the literary production of white writers, Ben Williams offers up some ideas on…
‘Exploring the recesses of loss with elegance’—Thulani Angoma-Mzini contemplates the 2021 Caine Prize shortlist
Meron Hadero was recently awarded the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, becoming the first Ethiopian author to claim…
‘Grief—a word that seemed too small to encompass the world I had been plunged into’—Read Sisonke Msimang’s essay from Our Ghosts Were Once People: Stories on Death and Dying
In a new anthology on death and dying, Sisonke Msimang writes about the multiple losses faced when her mother passed…
‘He could hear it. A sound that made his back grow cold, made the hair on his arms rise. It was the sound of bones’—Read an excerpt from An Island by Karen Jennings
The JRB presents an excerpt from Karen Jennings’s new novel An Island, which was recently longlisted for the Booker Prize….
‘I can tell you a lot about sex with a man to whom you are not attracted’—Read an excerpt from Lisa Taddeo’s debut novel Animal
The JRB presents an excerpt from Animal by Lisa Taddeo, the bestselling author of Three Women. AnimalLisa TaddeoBloomsbury Circus, 2021…
‘He was no longer working for the colonial state, and had fully taken on his revolutionary status’—Read an excerpt from Amílcar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist
The JRB presents an excerpt from António Tomás’s new book Amílcar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist. Amílcar Cabral:…
‘He missed hamburgers terribly sometimes’—Read an excerpt from Brandon Taylor’s new short story collection Filthy Animals
The JRB presents an excerpt from Filthy Animals, the new collection of stories by Brandon Taylor, the Booker Prize-shortlisted author…