‘A superb macaron of darkly satirical fiction’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Helen DeWitt’s new novella The English Understand Wool
Wamuwi Mbao reviews The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt, a book that contains ‘one of the most alarmingly enjoyable…
Category: USA
‘She sat at her dressing table, a plastic bag open on her lap, full of the hair that she had just scissored off her head’—Read an excerpt from Gothataone Moeng’s debut, Call and Response
The JRB presents an excerpt from Call and Response, the debut short story collection from Gothataone Moeng. Call and ResponseGothataone…
[The JRB Daily] Three African writers—Jacob M’hango, ’Pemi Aguda and Arinze Ifeakandu—awarded prestigious O Henry Prize for Short Fiction
Zambian writer Jacob M’hango and Nigerian writers ’Pemi Aguda and Arinze Ifeakandu are among the winners of the prestigious O…
[The JRB Daily] ‘Ambitious, eclectic and hard-hitting’—shortlist announced for 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction
The shortlist for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced. Half of this year’s list is made up…
[The JRB Daily] ‘Holy ****! Is this real?’ Winners of R3m Windham–Campbell Prizes for fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama announced
The eight winners of the 2023 Windham–Campbell Prizes have been announced. Now in its eleventh year, the Windham–Campbell Prize is one of…
[The JRB Daily] ‘A glorious celebration of the boundless imagination and creative ambition of women writers’—2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist announced, including Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo
The longlist for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced, including Zimbabwean novelist NoViolet Bulawayo. The Women’s Prize,…
‘Where else is history but in the stories people tell?’ Wamuwi Mbao reviews The Inheritors by Eve Fairbanks
The Inheritors by Eve Fairbanks is historical storytelling done well, writes Wamuwi Mbao. The InheritorsEve FairbanksJonathan Ball Publishers, 2023 David…
‘With all these familiar horrors, who in the hell was going to believe in zombies?’—Read an excerpt from Nana Nkweti’s debut short story collection Walking on Cowrie Shells
The JRB presents an extract from ‘It Just Kills You Inside’, excerpted from Walking on Cowrie Shells, the debut short…
[The JRB Daily] Yewande Omotoso and NoViolet Bulawayo longlisted for 2023 Dublin Literary Award—the world’s richest annual literary prize
Yewande Omotoso and NoViolet Bulawayo are among a number of writers from Africa longlisted for this year’s Dublin Literary Award….
[Fiction Issue] ‘The night leaves a lot of room for the imagination’—Read an excerpt from Po Bhattacharyya’s work in progress, Animal Behavior
The JRB presents an excerpt from Animal Behavior, a work in progress by Po Bhattacharyya. 1. In the beginning, I’m…
[Fiction Issue] ‘No one had told him that the monsters had long since come out of the shadows’—Read an excerpt from Sebastian Murdoch’s work in progress
The JRB presents an excerpt from a work-in-progress, Strange Vibrations, by Sebastian Murdoch. An hour later, Billy was back on the…
[Fiction Issue] Read ‘The Floating House’, an exclusive excerpt from Meron Hadero’s debut A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times
The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times, the debut collection of short…
‘It is heartening to read introspective characters who don’t believe everything they think is interesting’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Elif Batuman’s new novel Either/Or
Elif Batuman’s Either/Or is a new and worthy entry into the well-populated gallery of erudite books about people learning how…
[The JRB Daily] Island Prize for a Debut Novel from Africa call for submissions
Submissions for the second annual Island Prize for a Debut Novel from Africa are now open. This literary prize, founded…
[The JRB Daily] ‘Powerful’ 2022 Booker Prize shortlist announced—including NoViolet Bulawayo for Glory
The shortlist for the 2022 Booker Prize has been announced, including Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo. Bulawayo is shortlisted for Glory,…
African awakenings—Dipo Faloyin chats to Khanya Mtshali about his new book Africa is Not A Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa
When I read Africa is Not A Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa by Dipo Faloyin, I was overcome with…
[Photo Editor] A portrait of Bassey Ikpi 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…
[The JRB Daily] ‘This is absurd, I don’t win things’—Ruth Ozeki awarded 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction for The Book of Form and Emptiness
American–Canadian author, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki has been announced as the winner of the 2022 Women’s Prize…
‘Your story told by someone else might in the end be richer’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Culture and Liberation, the first dedicated collection of Alex La Guma’s exile writing
Culture and Liberation: Exile Writings, 1966–1985Alex La GumaEdited by Christopher J LeeSeagull Books 1966 was an interesting year. Future Trump…
‘Recitatif is cunning in its ability to expose us’—Masiyaleti Mbewe reflects on Toni Morrison’s only short story
To respect this text is to revisit it: Masiyaleti Mbewe reviews the new standalone edition of Toni Morrison’s Recitatif. RecitatifToni…
Wole Soyinka vs Caroline Davis—The CIA Controversy by Adekeye Adebajo
In 2020, Caroline Davis, a British scholar, now based at England’s University College London, published the book African Literature and…
[The JRB Daily] ‘You have changed my life!’ Three African writers among the winners of the 2022 Windham–Campbell Prizes
Header image: Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Emmanuel Iduma. The winners of the 2022 Windham–Campbell Prizes have been announced, including three…
‘It was a book I told friends no one would ever read’—Wamuwi Mbao talks to Jason Mott about his National Book Award-winning novel Hell of a Book
Jason Mott, whose Hell of a Book was awarded the National Book Award for Fiction as well as the Sir…
[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…
[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] 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] ‘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 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…
[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…
‘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…
‘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 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…