WEALTH OF IDEAS

This looks interesting. Kenyan writer and critic J.K.S Makokha, who teaches at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and Leonard Acqauh of University of Cape Coast, Ghana, will be co-editing a book entitled CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN LITERATURE: THEMATICS AND CRITICISM (2011).This project comes at a time when a new wave a young African writers have seized the attention of the world, often departing from the thematic concerns of classic writers like Ngugi, Mungoshi, Achebe, and sometimes adding to the trajectory of concerns that have been implicit in African literature from the outset. A book like this promises to show the diversity of the literature, to give the world a taste of the literature in the new century, and, indeed, as the information below shows, the focus of the work is on writing published since 2000. Below is the announcement in full: We are seeking critical essays for a new edited volume on major works of African literature by new writers emerging after 2000 or by establishe...

Miriam Shumba is the author of two novels, Show Me the Sun and That Which Has Horns , both published in the USA by Genesis Press. She has had several short stories and articles published in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and the United States. She earned her teaching degree at Rhodes University in South Africa and continued her education at Walden University. Miriam has taught elementary school in several countries. She moved to the United States in 2001 and now lives in Michigan with her husband. Miriam Shumba's 2010 Reading List 1. The Shack [book cd] : a novel/ William P. Young 2. The Bishop's Daughter / Tiffany L. Warren 3. The First Lady [book cd] / by Carl Weber 4. Serena : a novel / Ron Rash 5. The Piano Teacher / Janice Y.K. Lee 6. Finding Nouf [book cd] / Zoë Ferraris 7. The Christmas Sweater [book cd] / Glenn Beck with Kevin Balfe and Jason Wright 8. Esteemable acts : 10 actions for building real self-esteem / Francine Ward 9. Your best birth : know all your options, disco...

A beautiful and powerful collection! Every piece is painstakingly crafted with its own daring sword, cutting through the heart's sorrow. Here, poetry is liberation, and Burlee Vang is thus far our best Hmong writer!" — Pos Moua Burlee Vang is the winner of the 2010 Swan Scythe Press Chapbook Contest (Sacramento). His contest-winning book is The Dead I Know: Incantation for Rebirth . The book can be purchased from the Swan Scythe Press website -- www.swanscythe.com -- through PayPal, and is also available at Amazon Books. Burlee Vang's prose and poetry have appeared in Ploughshares, North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Massachusetts Review , and many other literary journals. His work has also been anthologized in Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers: Best New Voices of 2006 (Random House) and Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley (Heyday Books). He holds an MFA in fiction from California State University – Fresno....

This brief interview features a young, dynamic South African writer, Zukiswa Wanner. She is a Joburg-residing novelist, blogger, and short-story writer. Zukiswa was born in Zambia to a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother. Her mother claims that she has been rebellious ever since her birth at the momentous time of the Soweto Uprisings. Wanner, who did her primary and high school education in Zimbabwe, studied journalism at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu. Her debut novel, The Madams , published in November 2006, dealt with racial role reversals in post-apartheid South Africa. In addition to writing fiction, she has also contributed essays to Oprah, Elle and Juice magazines, and literary reviews and essays to Afropolitan and Sunday Independent. Behind Every Successful Man (2008)is her second novel. A funky, witty tale of a mother turned entrepreneur – to the great exasperation of Andile, her husband and BEE tycoon. Zukiswa is a founder member of the ReadSA initiative, a ...