On April 8th 2014 at the London Book Fair, Africa39 (a Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club Project) unveiled its list of 39 of the best African south of the Sahara writers under the age of 40. A list of all the writers can be foundhere.
The anthology, which will be published by Bloomsbury, edited by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, with a preface by Wole Soyinka will be launched at a festival in UNESCO's World Book Capital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria in October 2014. Exciting!!!
Since Tuesday a number of articles have been written on Africa39 and I think it's great the coverage it has been getting. Here I've compiled a list of some of the articles on it, which I will update as it goes on.
1. Top African Writers Under 40 Announced by James Murua gives a list of all 39 writers.
2. Mohlele, Mzobe and Watson Join Adichie, Megestu, Selasi on the 'Most Promising' African39 List via BooksLive
3. Making Lists: Africa39 by Kate Haines on list culture and the writers who made the list. The article asks interesting questions on why 40% of the writers are from Nigeria and Kenya, embraces the inclusion of writers from Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, but notes that there are only two Lusophone writers and no Francophone writers on the list.
4. Africa39: how we chose the writers for Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014 by Margaret Busby describes how the three judges (Elechi Amadi, Margaret Busby and Tess Onwueme) selected 39 African writers to represent the continent.
5. Africa39 and Caine Prize Authors by Lizzy Attree looks at the 16 authors involved with the Caine Prize (either taking part in a workshop, being shortlisted or winning) on the list.
