You are here: Homepage Tag writing Articles Literature | Libya Messenger from the Sahara Born into a Tuareg family, Ibrahim al-Koni has written about his birthplace for half a century. On why the desert won't let him go and why words can never do it justice By Ibrahim al-Koni 01/26/2024 Photo: Kristin Bethge Personal history | Angola The artist with two faces Between fiction and beats, between Africa and Europe: as an author and musician, Kalaf Epalanga is always travelling between worlds By Kalaf Epalanga 12/22/2023 [Translate to English:] The author Kit de Waal. Photo: Sarah Lee / eyevine Family | Great Britain “My mother had about 12 jobs” Between religious fanaticism and sibling love: British author Kit de Waal describes her childhood of extremes – and talks about how it shaped her relationship with her adopted children By Kit de Waal 10/06/2023 Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi Photo: Chen Meng-Ping für Kulturaustausch Literature | Taiwan From Taipeh to Beijing, with love Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi and Chinese writer Yan Lianke exchanged letters for us. The result is a very personal exchange about censorship, loss, and the pain that is expressed between the lines By Yan Lianke, Wu Ming-Yi 06/01/2023 NoViolet Bulawayo is a writer who has been awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing Portrait: Nye’ Lyn Tho Fiction | Zimbabwe “English is still not a language of intimacy” Author NoViolet Bulawayo writes about Zimbabwe using the rhythms of her mother tongue Ndebele – even though she has long lived in the USA. A conversation about modern African storytelling and living between languages Interview with NoViolet Bulawayo 05/14/2023 Abdulrazak Gurnah was born on the island of Zanzibar in 1948. As a student he fled to England and taught English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent. Today he lives in Canterbury Photo: Joel Saget / Getty Images Literature | International “Colonialism keeps going” In his books, Abdulrazak Gurnah takes a close-up look at life under colonial rule - and probes both his East African roots and his British homeland. A conversation Interview with Abdulrazak Gurnah 01/09/2023 Literature | International I think that art needs time to emerge In a world of fast-moving news about the War in Ukraine and climate change, it is often hard to focus and take time to create art. But literature works on a different clock: It needs time to form and silence to emerge. By Cécile Wajsbrot 01/09/2023 South-African author and Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut Photo: David Levenson / Getty Images Literature | South Africa “Books are very expensive in South Africa” The long shadows of apartheid: Damon Galgut, Booker Prize winner for “The Promise”, on the psychological effects of apartheid and South Africa’s enduring inequality Interview with Damon Galgut 11/30/2022 Illustration © Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Fiction | South Africa A novel from South Africa South African literature slipped from the international gaze after the end of apartheid. Books by black authors in particular rarely reached foreign readers. Now festivals, small publishers and the film industry are finally changing the picture By Niq Mhlongo 08/14/2022 Illustration © Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Travel writing | South Africa On the road Is there something to be learned from traveling? South African writer Lerato Mogoatlhe has traveled to thirty African countries – and learned a lot about herself in the process By Lerato Mogoatlhe 08/14/2022 Writer and lecturer Maaza Mengiste Photo: Annette Riedl / dpa / picture alliance Talking point | Fiction With respect How to write about things you haven’t experienced yourself. By Maaza Mengiste 04/14/2022 The author Ariana Harwicz Photo: Sebastián Freire Black and white thinking Art is immoral A new generation of cultural workers is adapting to ideological norms. This spells the end of creativity. By Ariana Harwicz 04/14/2022
Literature | Libya Messenger from the Sahara Born into a Tuareg family, Ibrahim al-Koni has written about his birthplace for half a century. On why the desert won't let him go and why words can never do it justice By Ibrahim al-Koni 01/26/2024
Photo: Kristin Bethge Personal history | Angola The artist with two faces Between fiction and beats, between Africa and Europe: as an author and musician, Kalaf Epalanga is always travelling between worlds By Kalaf Epalanga 12/22/2023
[Translate to English:] The author Kit de Waal. Photo: Sarah Lee / eyevine Family | Great Britain “My mother had about 12 jobs” Between religious fanaticism and sibling love: British author Kit de Waal describes her childhood of extremes – and talks about how it shaped her relationship with her adopted children By Kit de Waal 10/06/2023
Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi Photo: Chen Meng-Ping für Kulturaustausch Literature | Taiwan From Taipeh to Beijing, with love Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi and Chinese writer Yan Lianke exchanged letters for us. The result is a very personal exchange about censorship, loss, and the pain that is expressed between the lines By Yan Lianke, Wu Ming-Yi 06/01/2023
NoViolet Bulawayo is a writer who has been awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing Portrait: Nye’ Lyn Tho Fiction | Zimbabwe “English is still not a language of intimacy” Author NoViolet Bulawayo writes about Zimbabwe using the rhythms of her mother tongue Ndebele – even though she has long lived in the USA. A conversation about modern African storytelling and living between languages Interview with NoViolet Bulawayo 05/14/2023
Abdulrazak Gurnah was born on the island of Zanzibar in 1948. As a student he fled to England and taught English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent. Today he lives in Canterbury Photo: Joel Saget / Getty Images Literature | International “Colonialism keeps going” In his books, Abdulrazak Gurnah takes a close-up look at life under colonial rule - and probes both his East African roots and his British homeland. A conversation Interview with Abdulrazak Gurnah 01/09/2023
Literature | International I think that art needs time to emerge In a world of fast-moving news about the War in Ukraine and climate change, it is often hard to focus and take time to create art. But literature works on a different clock: It needs time to form and silence to emerge. By Cécile Wajsbrot 01/09/2023
South-African author and Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut Photo: David Levenson / Getty Images Literature | South Africa “Books are very expensive in South Africa” The long shadows of apartheid: Damon Galgut, Booker Prize winner for “The Promise”, on the psychological effects of apartheid and South Africa’s enduring inequality Interview with Damon Galgut 11/30/2022
Illustration © Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Fiction | South Africa A novel from South Africa South African literature slipped from the international gaze after the end of apartheid. Books by black authors in particular rarely reached foreign readers. Now festivals, small publishers and the film industry are finally changing the picture By Niq Mhlongo 08/14/2022
Illustration © Musonda Kabwe, Johannesburg Travel writing | South Africa On the road Is there something to be learned from traveling? South African writer Lerato Mogoatlhe has traveled to thirty African countries – and learned a lot about herself in the process By Lerato Mogoatlhe 08/14/2022
Writer and lecturer Maaza Mengiste Photo: Annette Riedl / dpa / picture alliance Talking point | Fiction With respect How to write about things you haven’t experienced yourself. By Maaza Mengiste 04/14/2022
The author Ariana Harwicz Photo: Sebastián Freire Black and white thinking Art is immoral A new generation of cultural workers is adapting to ideological norms. This spells the end of creativity. By Ariana Harwicz 04/14/2022
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