... because libraries and librarians were very instrumental in getting me here today. My journey as a writer began in a public library in Virginia many years ago.

Image via kireei.com

And of course, the reading (and sometimes watching) continued! Speaking of Chinelo Okparanta. Her debut novel, Under the Udala Trees, is said to have provoked several conversations around LGBT issues in African; and she joined news24 in the studio to discuss how it has sparked this conversation.

Screen shot via news24.com

Yaa Gyasi's US$1 billion debut novel, Homegoing, is out in a couple of day (June 7 to be exact); and Gyasi speaks about the inspiration behind her novel, which explores generations of Africans both at home and in the U.S. Over on Vimeo, I watched a short interview with writer Roland Rugero - the first Burundian novelist to be translated into English (Baho!, translated from the French by Christopher Schafer) - speaking about how the past affects present-day Burundi.

When I first started writing. I didn't come with any expectations. I just loved to tell stories. I've never expected awards. I don't have any list I'm checking off. You can't control awards. They're not really up to you. They are up to others. Thus, why expect them? It's a surprise and an honour each time it happens. When I heard my name called at the ceremony [Nebula], total and complete shock.

'Imagine Africa 500' is a smart and engaging addition to the growing number of anthologies of African sf, not quite as literary as Nerine Dorman's Terra Incognita, not quite as pulpy as Ivor Hartmann's AfroSF collection. Billy Kahora, The Story Club and Pan African Publishers are to be congratulated for setting this all in motion, for their commitment to developing new writers, for their efforts to address the domination of African sf by South Africa and Nigeria - 'Imagine Africa 500' includes five authors from Malawi, four from Uganda and one from Botswana, as well as three Nigerians and two South Africans - and by male writers - two-fifths of the stories are by women, which is not parity but is heading in the right direction.

Image by Mehul Gohil via Jalada.org

Image via BooksLIVE

A bittersweet story uniting different traditions of narrative to create a whole new geography of imagination. - Michèle Roberts  

Leila Aboulela: ... I want to start by asking you about the very first chapter, 'Bayan Layi'. I was one of the judges of the Caine Prize in 2013 when we short-listed 'Bayan Layi' for the prize. To me it felt like a complete, satisfying and accomplished short story. Was it, though, the first chapter of a novel in progress or did you later on take the character/idea further and develop it as a novel?

Elnathan John: ... 'Bayan Layi', in its first incarnation was only a short story written following the 2011 electoral violence in my home state Kaduna and other places in Nigeria. I was venturing an exposition of why the violence happened and what state the north was in general. I was giving it all a whirl in my mind letting the minutiae around me - the stories I was hearing and seeing and unfold - coalesce into some composite picture I could understand and explain to others. After the story was written and as much satisfaction that gave me, it became clearer (the more I had to read it on the Caine Prize circuit), that it was just the beginning of something larger and more pithy. That was when I decided to push out a few more chapters like 'Bayan Layi'. By the fourth chapter, its form manifested itself to me and guided me by the hand until 'Born on A Tuesday' was born.