Fuck Granta… thanks, Granta

"If I was smart, I would have waited a few years and made an iPhone app: a little satirical story about how to write about Africa every day, interactive and adaptable, for ninety-nine cents. Fuck Granta… thanks, Granta." Binyavanga Wainaina

In 1962, as many African countries were gaining independence, Heinemann’s African Writer’s Series introduced some of Africa’s most important writers to the continent, and to the world. At the time, the idea of a series spanning the continent seemed reasonable: many countries were encountering the same phenomenon, at the same time.

Almost 50 years later, the media revolution combined with the ongoing flow of immigration has opened up a chapter in African writing. A new generation of African writers has arrived Over the past six years, partly through the efforts of publishing and literary networking through institutions like Kwani (www.kwani.org), Farafina (www.kachifo.com) and Chimurenga (www.chimurenga.co.za). In 2005 Granta published The View from Africa, featuring "fresh voices from Africa, in all their differences". In the same year Bard College created the Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artists, "a world class institution that serves a new generation of African writers". The Orange Prize for Fiction was awarded in London 2007 to Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun, and the Caine Prize for African Writing has introduced new writers to agents and publishers. Writers like Chimamanda Adichie, Alain Mabanckou, Chris Abani, Petina Gapah, Marie Ndiaye and Seffi Ata are known and read in many African countries, in the African diaspora, and in Europe and America.

Literary Betting: Words from a Bookies Booker

 Lit prizes as sport 

"Snubbed again - I can't understand why I have been overlooked. The judges for the Booker Prize have been announced and, yet again, I am not on the list. Don't they know I have credentials second to none entitling me to be added to this prestigious gathering? Haven't I been betting on it for the best part of twenty years? Aren't I invariably the only person outside of the actual judges at the Guildhall each year to have read all of the books and not just skimmed through the fly-leaves to pick up a feel for the book? Aren't I interviewed by whichever TV station happens to be covering the event this year and asked for my tip every year? Don't the papers clamour for my opinion?

Of course I am - of course they do - yet that elusive invitation remains just a dream. I am treated as though I were a judge, though. One national newspaper reviewer rang me a few weeks back asking me to quote odds for his hot tip to win the Booker Prize this year. I told him that was like telling me Red Rum was in the Grand National but not telling me who he was running against. I did take the precaution of getting hold of the book he fancied and reading it. The book is a decent enough read and packs in plenty of references to the seventies, although many of them seem to be inserted just to prove how well the author's done his research. Should get nominated but is probably too readable to win!

See, I can be controversial - which is always a good trait for a Booker judge - the Award doesn't really warm up each year until someone comes out with some outrageous comment which gets plenty of publicity and stimulates the betting market. Because, of course, the majority of people who bet on the Award do so not because they have read all the books, but because they are following a reviewer's hint or someone told them that they read one of the books and it was unputdownable - or, in some cases, incomprehensible."


Ladbroke (taking bets on the Nobel Prize, Man Booker, and others since 1987)
William Hill

Get someone to give odds on the '08 Caine Prize or one of the other African lit prizes

Dreams, Miracles and Jazz

Helon Habila & Kadija Sesay

1770100253
Trade Paperback
April 2008
World Picador Africa

Dreams, Miracles and Jazz is an anthology of new writing in English from writers born in Africa or of African parentage. Stories from emerging voices including previous Caine prize winners, Binyavanga Wainana, Segun Afolabli and Brian Chikwava; writers who have since secured book deals, like Sefi Atta, and others whose work has won awards and is found regularly in national and international anthologies such as Biram Mboob and Mamle Kabu.