African literature in recent times has been breaking new grounds in international markets, like the United States, where historically it has been overlooked. Writers like Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, etc. have led the race in getting African literature into global bookstores and libraries.
Inspired by those who came before, a new wave of young, gifted African writers are breaking bounds, fearlessly telling their stories, some in multiple ways. With publishing deals, accomplished debuts, multiple awards and rave reviews under their belts, these writers are penning stories that juxtapose classic themes with unique views and voices.
We, at The Single Story Foundation, realize that there are many more successful African writers and poets out there than the 10 listed in this post. We doubt we adequately can name all amazing African writers in one blog post. Below are 10 contemporary African writers 30 years and under, except Imbolo Mbue we couldn’t help but add, who keep making marks in the literary world at large.
Photo by Bart Michiels
Okparanta Colgate University is an Olive B. O’Connor Fellow, a University of Iowa’s Provost’s Postgraduate Fellow, a U.S. Artists Fellow, and a Grange & Rogers Faculty Research Fellow. She won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award and the 2014 O. Henry Prize. She also was a finalist for the 2013 Society of Midland Authors Award and the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing. Granta Books published her debut short story collection, Happiness, Like Water, in 2013. Her collection was long-listed for the 2013 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, was a finalist for the 2014 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.
Her first novel, Under the Udala Trees, published in 2015, won the 2016 Lambda Literary Award. It also was nominated for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award in Fiction, the 2016 NAACP Image Awards, the 2016 Publishing Triangle Award, the 2016 Chautauqua Prize, the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and the 2015 Kirkus Prize in Fiction.
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Photo by Yagazie Emezi.
An Igbo-Tamil writer and filmmaker, Emezi is lauded as one of multi-talented new generation of African writers. She is currently a 2016 Kimbilio Fellow. In 2015, she received a residency at the Hub City Writers Project, was shortlisted for the Wasafiri New Writing Prize, and was a Harriet’s Gun Media QBWT-Artist. Her debut novel Freshwater will be released by Grove Atlantic in 2017. She also won the 2015 Morland Writing Scholarship for her second novel The Death of Vivek Oji. She also makes short films. Her experimental short Ududeagu won an Audience Award at the 2014 BlackStar Film Festival and has been screened in 13 countries.
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3. Warsan Shire
Photo by Amaal Said, via the New Yorker.
A Somali-British poet, Shire writes poems around the themes of journey and trauma. She won the inaugural Brunel University’s African Poetry Prize in 2013. She also won the Young Poet Laureate for London that same year. Flipped Eeye published her poetry pamphlet, Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth, in 2011. She put out a limited release pamphlet, Her Blue Body, in 2015. Flipped Eye will release her full collection sometimes this year. Beyoncé used Shire’s poetry heavily in her 2016 Lemonade feature-length film.
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Photo by Zach Mueller.
His first novel,The Fishermen, has been translated into 22 languages. The book won the inaugural FT/Oppenheimer Emerging Voices for Fiction in 2015, the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Debut Literary Work, and the 2016 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Obioma received the University of Michigan Hopwood Awards for fiction in 2013 and for poetry in 2014. He was a resident at OMI’s Ledig House in 2012.
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5. Imbolo Mbue
Photo by Kiriko Sano.
Cameroonian writer Mbue’s debut novel, Behold the Dreamers, will be released on Aug. 23 by Random House. The book, also known as The Longings of Jende Jonga, was reportedly sold at the Frankfurt Book Fair for a million dollars. The book tells the story of Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, working as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards. Sony’s Tri-Star division picked up the movie rights, wherein TriStar exec Nicole Brown will oversee the project.
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6. Yaa Gyasi
Photo by Michael Lionstar.
Ghanaian Gyasi, with an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, weaves three centuries of American slavery and colonialism into her debut novel, Homegoing. A New York Times best seller, Homegoing tells the story of two separated Ghanaian half-sisters, Effia and Esi. Effia marries a white slave-master in Ghana while Esi gets sold as a slave. The book sparked a bidding war which led to a seven-figure deal.
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Image by Safia Elhillo.
Sudanese poet Elhillo is a Cave Canem fellow and the poetry editor at Kinfolks Quarterly. She won the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets and co-won the 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize. She published a short collection, The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles in 2012. Her first full-length collection, The January Children, is forthcoming from University of Nebraska Press in 2017. Her work has been translated into Arabic and Greek.
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8. Masande Ntshanga
Image via Caine Prize, 2015.
In 2013, Ntshangawon the inaugural PEN International New Voices award with his short story, Space. Space is a window into the friendship of four school boys who discover a mysterious gray man. His debut novel, The Reactive, was published in 2014 by Penguin Random House. He was a creative writing fellow at the University of Cape Town and a Mellon Mays Foundation fellow. He was also a finalist for the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing.
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Image via Jacana Media, 2016.
A Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean writer, Chigumadzi founded and works as the editor of Vanguard Magazine. She is also a founding member of The Feminist Stokvel, which addresses the social issues young black women face in South Africa. She was a 2013 TEDxJohannesburg speaker and a 2015 Ruth First Fellow. Her debut novel, Sweet Medicine, is a story of a young woman that takes place in Harare at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic anguish in 2008.
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10. Lidudumalingani Mqombothi
Image via Caine Prize, 2016.
South African writer, film-maker, and photographer, Lidudumalingani won the 2016 Caine Prize for his “Memories We Lost” short story. The short story tells the emotionally charged story of a girl who acts as the protector of her sister, whose serious mental-health problems cause consternation in a South African village. You can listen to the story, narrated by Tseliso Monaheng. By winning the prize, Mqombothi will be a writer-in-Residence at the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice, Georgetown University. He also won the £10,000 prize.
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Author: TSSF
The Single Story Foundation is a nonprofit organization which provides storytelling opportunities for Africans at home and in diaspora.
We seek to change the stereotype through visual art, literature, and performing art. At The Single Story Foundation, we believe that storytelling is one of the ways we can fix the damage caused by Western storytelling.
I think, when it started, writers on the continent were looking for somewhere to publish their work, work that didn’t necessarily have appeal to a Western publishing industry that pretty much wanted to tell the same stories the media was telling about Africa.
I think its cool, just wish to find out how one could make his story known? What I mean is, how one could make his novel international supposed it’s been published locally
Hello, I’m a dramatist, I’ll like to know better on how to your stories known to people, especially to external citizens… I really love being a writer and I want to make it Broad. I’ll be so honored if any help comes from any of my beloved writers.