Search Results for “how to write about africa,”
30 Articles
Essays & Memoir | Issue 92
How to Write About Africa
Binyavanga Wainaina
‘Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances. Because you care.’
Essays & Memoir | Issue 92
Africa Writes
Caitlin Pearson
The Royal African Society takes a look back at the history of the Africa Writes festival, their annual celebration of contemporary literature from Africa and the diaspora.
Essays & Memoir | Issue 136
Africa’s Future Has No Space for Stupid Black Men
Pwaangulongii Dauod
‘The night was full of energy. The kind of energy that Africa needs to reinvent itself.’
Essays & Memoir | Issue 129
When Did I Become a Writer?
Mia Couto
‘I am often asked when I became a writer, and I have taken to not rushing my answer.’
Essays & Memoir | Issue 114
One Day I Will Write About This Place
Binyavanga Wainaina
‘We are, it seems, in the middle of nowhere.’
Fiction | Issue 110
The Unwriteable
Mark Doty
‘When I was seventeen, a freshman in college living in my parents’ house, I met Ruth at a poetry reading.’
Essays & Memoir | Issue 110
The Essential Gesture: Writers and Responsilbility
Nadine Gordimer
‘Responsibility is what awaits outside the Eden of creativity.’
Essays & Memoir | Issue 166
Ecce Senex: Stephen James Joyce
James Scudamore
‘He was “a Joyce, not a Joycean”, yet considered himself the supreme arbiter of what constituted valuable Joyce scholarship. At the same time, he admitted that he rarely read anything in full.’
James Scudamore on trying to ghostwrite Stephen James Joyce's memoir.
Essays & Memoir | Issue 165
From Zanzibar to Marbach
Abdulrazak Gurnah
‘The tragedies inflicted on the people of East Africa as a result of European rivalries are belittled and forgotten.’
Abdulrazak Gurnah on German East Africa.
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Books of the Year 2023
Books of the Year
Contributors and friends of the magazine reflect on what they read in 2023.
In Conversation | Issue 165
Once Again, Germany Defines Who Is a Jew | Part II
George Prochnik, Emily Dische-Becker & Eyal Weizman
‘Turning to Germany, it seems that Jews are the only ones entitled to historical context, to history, and also to trauma. Palestinian history is denied.’
George Prochnik in conversation with Emily Dische-Becker and Eyal Weizman, after 7 October 2023.
Poetry | The Online Edition
Hades Baedeker
Ken Chen
‘You may need to gaze at death indirectly, through a mirror crafted into a shield.’
Poetry by Ken Chen.
Essays & Memoir | Issue 165
Today We Just Say Germany
Alexander Kluge
‘A philosopher will reflect on the world from any place.’
Alexander Kluge on Germany, translated by Peter Kuras.
In Conversation | Issue 165
Once Again, Germany Defines Who Is a Jew | Part I
George Prochnik, Eyal Weizman & Emily Dische-Becker
‘We just do not think that it’s for the Germans to say to us what kind of Jews we should be, what kind of project we should be part of.’
George Prochnik in conversation with Emily Dische-Becker and Eyal Weizman, before 7 October 2023.
In Conversation | Issue 165
Europe’s Mistake
Jürgen Habermas
‘Today, I no longer believe that the EU will play a globally influential role in the future.’
Granta’s editor interviews Jürgen Habermas.
Art & Photography | Issue 165
Reunified German Images
Fredric Jameson
‘Political or not, the element Rauch works in is certainly what we call History.’
Fredric Jameson on the paintings of Neo Rauch.
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
My Time Machine
Arthur Asseraf
‘How do we imagine the past of those we love?’
Arthur Asseraf on family and fractured memories.
Essays & Memoir | Issue 164
Once a Dancer
Diana Evans
‘What happens to a dancer when they stop dancing?’
Diana Evans on dancing and writing.
In Conversation | The Online Edition
Interview
Margo Jefferson & Guy Gunaratne
Guy Gunaratne interviewed Margo Jefferson after the winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize was announced, and they discussed her prize-winning book, Constructing a Nervous System.
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Listlessness
Christy Edwall
‘The listless mind is one which defers rather than tries to bring about closure. There is always one more tab to open.’
Christy Edwall on listlessness in twenty-first century fiction.
In Conversation | The Online Edition
In Conversation
Tom Bullough & Ben Rawlence
‘People may not want realism but it’s still our job to try and supply it in compelling and truthful ways.’
Tom Bullough and Ben Rawlence on writing into the climate crisis.
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
On Beyoncé
Okechukwu Nzelu
‘Renaissance gives back, by reminding Black queer people what it’s like to be in our most sacred spaces.’
Okechukwu Nzelu on Beyoncé.
Art & Photography | Issue 162
What It Promised
Cian Oba-Smith & Gary Younge
‘As the economy declined African Americans became a larger part of a shrinking and impoverished city.’
Gary Younge introduces the photography of Cian Oba-Smith.
Essays & Memoir | Issue 162
Many Words for Heat, Many Words for Hate
Amitava Kumar
‘In Delhi the heat is chemical, something unworldly, a dry bandage or heating pad wrapped around the body.’
Memoir by Amitava Kumar.
Essays & Memoir | Issue 162
The Antigua Journals (What Is a Homeland)
Chanelle Benz
‘I am used to not belonging; it is, you could say, my brand.’
Chanelle Benz on reuniting with her father in Antigua.
Essays & Memoir | Issue 162
The Golden Record
Caspar Henderson
‘The two copies of the Golden Record were shot into space nearly fifty years ago.’
Caspar Henderson on music sent into space by NASA.
Essays & Memoir | Issue 161
Captions
Andrew Miller
‘I note that my brother – he’ll deny it but he was always the moody one – has apparently refused to take Granny’s hand.’
Andrew Miller reflects on three family photographs.
In Conversation | The Online Edition
In Conversation
Ira Mathur & Monique Roffey
Ira Mathur and Monique Roffey discuss memoir-writing in the Caribbean and the enduring legacy of colonial rule in Trinidad.