Paris, France | AFP | Two novels about the Nazis took France’s biggest literary prizes on Monday, with Eric Vuillard’s story of how German industry and finance backed Adolf Hitler winning the top Prix Goncourt. “L’ordre du jour” (in English “Agenda”) had been among the favourites for the Goncourt prize — …
Read More »Kazuo Ishiguro: Social worker turned Nobel Prize Winner
Londres, United Kingdom | AFP | Kazuo Ishiguro, the 62-year-old British novelist of Japanese origin who won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, once wanted to be a rock star, then became a social worker and only later in life turned to writing. Born in Japan and raised in England …
Read More »Britain celebrates literary icon Jane Austen on bicentenary of her death
Winchester, United Kingdom | AFP | Two hundred years after Jane Austen’s death, Britain is celebrating one of its best-loved authors, who combined romance with biting social commentary that still speaks to fans around the world. The author of classic novels “Pride and Prejudice”, “Emma” and “Sense and Sensibility” had …
Read More »‘The best words’: Trump may be a poet without knowing it
Oslo, Norway | AFP | “I know words… I have the best words,” Donald Trump said one day in his superlative way. Now those words by the new US president have been pulled together as a “collection of poetry” in Norway. Who knew? Trump the poet? “What Trump says is …
Read More »Nigeria’s Soyinka hits back at ‘imbeciles’ in green card row
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nobel prize-winning author Wole Soyinka hit back Monday at critics from his native Nigeria, denouncing the “slugs, barbarians and imbeciles” who derided him for tearing up his US residency card after Donald Trump’s election win. “I don’t want people we fought for to have the …
Read More »Beatty becomes first US author to win Man Booker Prize
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Paul Beatty has became the first US author to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel “The Sellout”, which the novelist said should not be read as a “mono-directional” take on race. The jury behind the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award said …
Read More »Man Booker Prize celebrates daring authors
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Six authors are vying for the Man Booker Prize, the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award to be announced Tuesday, in a shortlist celebrated for taking risks and tackling tough subjects. The winner will be announced at a glitzy event in London after judges …
Read More »Mzungu with a big nose writes book
BOOKS: Insights into Uganda – It’s the funniest, frankest, saddest commentary ever written about Uganda I like reading because it packs rest, entertainment, learning and more in one activity. Most times though, I am very clear about why I am reading a particular item. So I was at a loss …
Read More »NGUGI WA THIONG’O: Teach me to be me
INDEPENDENCE SPECIAL: By Ngugi wa Thiong’o In 1969 Gacamba, a bicycle repairer in Nyeri, a town about a hundred miles from Nairobi, discovered some kind of engine, a scooter engine, and, using the scrap metal he could find in his backyard, made an aeroplane that he called Kenya One. The plane …
Read More »Top promoter of African literature speaks of `boosting soft power’
This year, from Aug.22 to 28, a week-long literary festival will be held at the Uganda Museum in Kampala. It will involve book launches, literary workshops, and conversations with world renowned literary and cultural scholars like Grace Ahingula Musila; a Professor of Literature at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, Nigerian …
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