ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Literature category.

How to Kill the Nigerian Publishing Industry

This comes from new article by Jeremy Weate (founder, Cassava Republic Press) published on Africa is a Country in which the hypocrisy (or counterproductive measures) of the Nigerian administration is laid bare in the new series of tariffs placed on book importation, in contravention of a treaty signed with UNESCO.

Here’s an excerpt:

The reality is, Nigerian publishers who wish to sell good quality books at an affordable price are forced to print overseas. There’s nothing particularly innovative or unusual in this: many Western publishers now print in Asia too. Cheap electricity and labour, access to international paper markets as well as technical know-how limit globally competitive print facilities to a small group of countries. Nigeria has no hope of competing with these countries any time soon. A wiser alternative policy decision would be to not even try. Nigerian paper mill and printing companies catering to local (non-book) printing needs can be supported through tax breaks and subsidies to nurture market development, without the need for protectionism. The lesson learnt from other sectors in Nigeria (such as textiles), is surely that tariffs and import bans stimulate piracy, rather than local market development. It is therefore also likely that book pirates may benefit from the punitive tariff. In other words, authors as well as Nigerian publishers will suffer.

More here.

PRESS RELEASE: ARTMOSPHERE MARCH 15, 2014

ARTMOSPHERE is the leading monthly platform for the revival of a vibrant reading culture and the promotion of creative expressions in literature, music and the arts amongst Nigeria’s teeming youth population.

Curated by WriteHouse Collective since July 2011, ARTMOSPHERE has consistently incorporated the classic ideals of artistic erudition with the innovations of performance practice and contemporary culture. The event offers an eclectic mix of creative dexterity from leading and emerging culture practitioners in Nigeria. Book readings, poetry performances, panel discussions, music and art exhibitions are creatively fused together to make each edition a memory to be relished.

The March edition of ARTMOSPHERE will play host to renowned writer and publisher, africanwriting.com, Chuma Nwokolo. Chuma Nwokolo will read from his new collection of short stories, How to Spell Naija and also discuss the creative process, governance, political as well as social issues alongside five emerging writers. There will also be book signings and music performances by D’Jazz Band at the event.

The event will take place from 3PM to 6PM on Saturday, March 15, 2014. Additional information about the event, together with details about how to get to the venue at the NuStreams Conference & Culture Centre, KM 110, Iyaganku Road, off Alalubosa GRA, Ibadan are available on our fan page: www.facebook.com/writehouseng.

GUEST OF THE MONTH: CHUMA NWOKOLO

Chuma Nwokolo is one of Nigeria’s most prolific writers working in the short story subgenre. A lawyer and satirist, Chuma was writer-in-residence at the Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford, United Kingdom between 2005 and 2007 and is currently the publisher of African Writing Magazine. His published collections include, One More Tale for the Road (2003), Diaries of a Dead African (2003), Ghost of Sani Abacha (2012) and How to Spell Naija in 100 Stories (2013). In 2006, he released a poetry collection titled Memories of Stone. He is the inaugural editor for the Nigerian Writers Series, a publishing project promoted by the Association of Nigerian Authors and endowed by the Niger State Government.

Etisalat Reads in Lagos

Here are pictures from the Etisalat-organized event at the Freedom Park, Lagos Island, on Saturday, to introduce to the Nigerian (and global audience) the shortlisted writers for the inaugural Etisalat Literature Prize. The shortlisted writers were NoViolet Bulawayo, author of We Need New Names (2013); Yewande Omotosho, author of Bomboy (2011); and Karen Jennings, author of Finding Soutbek (2012).

The winner of the prize, declared yesterday, February 23rd, was NoViolet Bulawayo. She was presented the check of £15,000. She will also be attending The Etisalat Fellowship at the prestigious University of East Anglia, mentored by Professor Giles Foden, author of the Last King of Scotland.

Other people in these shots are Ayodele Olofintuade, Ayodele Morocco-Clarke, Lola Shoneyin, Victor Ehikhamenor, Ama Ata Aidoo, Toni Kan, Femi Morgan, and Kole Omotosho, among many others.

Poem for a Newborn Child*

Love peeps through the screen, many miles away
In rough, rumbled, beats of a new toddler’s heart;
Dark, with restless tiny fingers gripping winter’s tray.

Weird happy tingling pokes of a creation complete.
Commenced with many yells, and now another start:
New breath into a complex palette and dizzying street.

Eniafe, the one we wanted; the stylish, fanciful guest;
And his father’s edge in repose; art in blood of new hues.
His mother’s rock chiseled in the dreams of harvest.

The world will not end. Not now, for the fresh terrain,
and tomorrow, nods to better selves and better views.
Here is a new earth, embodied, like a bitty human grain.

He is here, bouncing. He is here, bouncing. He is here.
He is here. He is here, bouncing. He is here, bouncing.

___

* Born Febrary 14, at around 4.23pm, in Minneapolis Minnesota. Mother and son are doing okay

Two Writers on Sexuality and Morality

Lola Shoneyin (Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives) and Toni Kan (Nights of the Creaking Bed) will, on February 15, head a public discussion on writing sex, sexuality, and morality. Find the details below:

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