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bookshy

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2013 has been another great year for African literature, and since my reading this year was pretty awful, I decided instead to look back at the year - new releases, festivals, awards and more. Enjoy!!!

New Releases


It seemed like every other week a new novel came out this year - The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna, The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,  Love is Power by A Igoni Barrett, Tomorrow I'll be Twenty by Alain Mabanckou and The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed to name some. There was also a lot of firsts - There is a Country: New Fiction from the New Nation of South Sudan and debut novels from Taiye Selasi with Ghana Must Go and NoViolet Bulawayo with We Need New Names. 

Nominations and Prizes
In January, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the Arabic Booker) shortlist included Tunisian author Husein Al-Wad's His Excellency the Minister. In April, Granta Best Young British Novelist 2013 announced its list of the 20 best British novelists under 40. This was more diverse than usual with the authors coming from a wider range of ethnic backgrounds and women forming the majority of authors. Included on the list was Somali-born Nadifa Mohammed, Nigerian born Helen Oyeyemi and Taiye Selasi, born in London to Nigerian and Ghanian parents. Also in April, the Kenyan-born Somali poet Warsan Shire was announced as the first ever winner of the Brunel University African Poetry Prize. In May, E E Sule was announced as the African Regional Winner for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize for his novel Sterile Sky. In May, Marie NDaiye's Three Strong Women was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2013. Also in May, Mozambican author Mia Couto was announced as the winner of the 2013 Camões Prize for Literature, one of the most prestigious international awards honouring the work of Portuguese language writers. 

In July Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was awarded the 2013 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction for Americanah, which was described as 'a novel that engages with important ideas about race, and does so with style, wit and insight'. Also in July, Nigerian-American Tope Folarin won the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story  Miracle.  
In the same month, Uganda's Jennifer Nansubuga Makumni won the Kwani? Manuscript Project, a new one-off literary prize for unpublished fiction from African writers, for her novel The Kintu Saga. In September NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names made it on to the Man Booker Prize 2013 Shortlist and The National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 List. In November Mia Couto was announced as the laureate of the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Also in November, the winners of the Golden Baobab Prizes for African Children's Literature were announced. Golden Baobab also launched their prize for illustrations. In December, the innaugural Etisalat Prize for African Literature announced its longlist including We Need New Names, Bomboy, Daughters Who Walk this Path  and The Spider King's Daughter. 

Events and Festivals
In May, there was a huge contingent of African authors in Etonnants Voyageurs in France. A couple of other events/festivals this year included the Royal African Society's literature and book festival in London in July and the inaugural Ake Arts and Book Festival in November, which also included the stage adaptation of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin.

In the News
Cordite Books, a Pan-African Crime and Spy Fiction was launched this year. It was announced in March that the deadline for submissions for AfroSF Vol 2 will be March 2014, which means a second anthology will be coming our way in 2014. In May, the Small Publisher's Catalogue, Africa was published. Also in May The Shining Girls was acquired by MRC and Appian Way to be adapted for TV. In July an interview Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie did with Aaron Bady on Americanah and more led to some reactions from some of the Caine Prize Shortlistees on her views of the Caine Prize. In September Half of a Yellow Sun premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Also in September, Taiye Selasi opened the ilb 2103 festival with a speech 'African Literature Doesn't Exist'. There was also The Shining Girls Charity Art Show. In October, Volume 25 of Paradoxa Africa SF was published, which let us know that '[if] African sf has not arrived, it is certainly approaching fast'. Adichie really was everywhere this year - her TEDxEuston Talk 'We Should All Be Feminists' was sampled on Beyonce's Flawless. 

Saying bye to the greats
There was also some sad news this year. In March, Chinua Achebe passed away, while in September during the StoryMoja Hay Festival Kofi Awoonor died at the terrorist attack at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. 

While there is probably a lot more I have missed and I know I haven't really included North African literature, it really has been another interesting year in African literature.  With over a week to go before the year ends, I'm looking forward to what 2014 has in store. 
17:08 No Comments
It has been pretty quiet here for the last month or so - as I'm trying to finish up my thesis, which really feels like it will never end (but my family and friends constantly tell me it will). Although I've been really bad with blogging of late, I wanted to do a really quick post because today bookshy turns two. I wasn't going to let my PhD or work, get in the way of me celebrating it. It will be a quiet one this year, but a celebration none-the-less. 

In spite of my patchy blogging, thinking back over the last 12 months, it has been an awesome year for bookshy. Big, big thank you once again to everyone who reads this blog, who likes the facebook page or follows me on twitter. Thank you also to the publishers and author's who have asked me to read and review some amazing books. I still absolutely love doing this and it really has been a great year. There have been some wonderful and unexpected things that happened, so I'm just going to do very brief highlights of bookshy's Year 2. So please join me in celebrating (even though it's quiet).


If it isn't clear by now, I absolutely love literature from Zimbabwe, so when I had the opportunity to 'Meet' Tendai Huchu, author of The Hairdresser of Harare and Bryony Rheam, author of This September Sun, to say I was ecstatic is an understatement. I haven't done many interviews on this blog, but Tendai Huchu's interview was really fun and I loved learning more about the diverse genres he writes in. This September Sun honestly is probably one of the most beautiful stories I have read so when Bryony agreed to be interviewed for the blog I was so honoured and it was great to learn more about the book, especially its historical element and what inspired Bryony Rheam to write the novel. I would love to meet both in person - although knowing me I would have no idea what to say. 


Seeing my tumblr - African Book Covers - which I am extremely proud of being featured on The Millions Guide to Artistic and Literary Tumblrs, Part III, as well as AfriPOP's Six Sites Where to Check Out African Literature was another highlight for me. I love, love, love both sites, so the fact that they knew about my tumblr and featured was so amazing. It will never get old seeing something I love and enjoy doing being featured in spaces that I truly admire. So thank you The Millions and AfriPOP.

Then I was asked to be a 2013 Golden Baobab Prize Search Hero to support the 2013 Golden Baobab Prize for African children's literature. That was such a huge honour and there was the added bonus of getting to read some unpublished manuscripts on children's literature. There were some gems there - one of which was Kanengo Rebecca Diallo from Tanzania.

I would also like to say a big thank you to Tundun Adeyemo, who at the beginning of the year interviewed me when bookshy turned 1, and then invited me to speak on her radio show, Outspoken. I was so nervous, especially the day leading up to it - asking myself why I agreed to it. But it was really fun and not as nerve-wracking as I thought, so thank you.  


A final highlight would be writing a book review of The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes for Paradoxa (Volume 25), Africa SF edited by Mark Bould. Paradoxa publishes articles on genre fiction: sci-fi, horror, romance and more. So when I was contacted and asked to provide a review, I couldn't say no! And seeing my review in print, in honestly one of the coolest looking journal I have ever seen was pretty much amazing. 

Like I said it's been a great year, and I'm looking forward to another year - and one in which I can read and blog more. 
23:43 1 Comments
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About me

Founded in 2011, bookshy represents two things: the young me who was so shy I escaped through books, and the older me whose shelf is always one book shy of being full.

bookshy is a space where I celebrate, promote and recognise contemporary African literature - although sometimes I go back in time to commemorate the greats. It is about the books I love, the books I have read and the books that I am dying to read.

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