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New Wave of African Writers with an Internationalist Bent

By goodblacknews on July 26, 2014
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the premiere, in Lagos, Nigeria, of the film “Half of a Yellow Sun,” based on her novel. (Credit: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

More than a decade ago, when the young Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was struggling to get her first novel, “Purple Hibiscus,” published, an agent told her that things would be easier “if only you were Indian,” because Indian writers were in vogue. Another suggested changing the setting from Nigeria to America. Ms. Adichie didn’t take this as commentary on her work, she said, but on the timidity of the publishing world when it came to unknown writers and unfamiliar cultures, especially African ones.

These days she wouldn’t receive that kind of advice. Black literary writers with African roots (though some grew up elsewhere), mostly young cosmopolitans who write in English, are making a splash in the book world, especially in the United States. They are on best-seller lists, garner high profile reviews and win major awards, in America and in Britain. Ms. Adichie, 36, the author of “Americanah,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction this year, is a prominent member of an expanding group that includes Dinaw Mengestu, Helen Oyeyemi, NoViolet Bulawayo, Teju Cole, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Taiye Selasi, among others.

The Ethiopian-born novelist Dinaw Mengestu in 2010, when his book “How to Read the Air” was published. (Credit: Ed Ou for The New York Times)

There are reasons for the critical mass now, say writers, publishers and literature scholars. After years of political and social turmoil, positive changes in several African nations are helping to greatly expand the number of writers and readers. Newer awards like the Caine Prize for African Writing have helped, too, as have social media, the Internet and top M.F.A. programs. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, black writers with recent African roots will make up more than 10 percent of the fiction students come September. Moreover, the number of African immigrants in the United States has more than quadrupled in the past two decades, to almost 1.7 million.

And publishing follows trends: Women, Asian-American, Indian and Latino writers have all been “discovered” and had their moment in the sun — as have African-Americans, some of whom envy the attention given to writers with more recent links in Africa.

“People used to ask where the African writers were,” said Aminatta Forna, author of “The Hired Man” (2013, set in Croatia). “They were cleaning offices and working as clerks.”

Some writers and critics scoff at the idea of lumping together diverse writers with ties to a diverse continent. But others say that this wave represents something new in its sheer size, after a long fallow period. (There were some remarkable exceptions, like Wole Soyinka’s 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature and Ben Okri’s 1991 Booker Prize.) And it differs from the postcolonial wave, roughly beginning in the 1960s, which brought international acclaim to writers like Chinua Achebe and Nuruddin Farah, among others.

R.I.P. Walter Dean Myers, Prolific and Beloved Author of Award-Winning Children’s Books

By goodblacknews on July 4, 2014
Walter Dean Myers, beloved and deeply respected children’s book author, died on July 1, 2014, following a brief illness. He was 76 years old.
In a career spanning over 45 years, Walter Dean Myers wrote more than 100 books for children of all ages. His impressive body of work includes two Newbery Honor Books, three National Book Award Finalists, and six Coretta Scott King Award/Honor-winning books. He was the winner of the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award, the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.
In 2010, Walter was the United States nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and in 2012 he was appointed the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, serving a two-year tenure in the position. Also in 2012, Walter was recognized as an inaugural NYC Literary Honoree, an honor given by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for his substantial lifetime accomplishments and contribution to children’s literature.
Myers at an appearance as National Ambassador
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of erudite and beloved author Walter Dean Myers. Walter’s many award-winning books do not shy away from the sometimes gritty truth of growing up. He wrote books for the reader he once was, books he wanted to read when he was a teen. He wrote with heart and he spoke to teens in a language they understood. For these reasons, and more, his work will live on for a long, long time,” said Susan Katz, President and Publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books.
Walter Dean Myers was born Walter Milton Myers on August 12, 1937, in Martinsburg,
In Walter’s memoir, Bad Boy, he wrote, “Harlem is the first place called ‘home’ that I can remember.” This sentiment is reflected in Walter’s writing, whether via a love letter to the neighborhood in the picture book Harlem; a story of a boy’s trial for a crime committed in Harlem, in the novel Monster; or the tale of two friends struggling to see a future beyond the community they know in the novel Darius & Twig. Walter spent much of his childhood playing basketball on the courts of Harlem and checking books out of the George Bruce Branch of the New York Public Library. Florence Dean taught Walter to read in their kitchen, and when he began attending Public School 125, he could read at a second-grade level. Though Walter struggled through school with a speech impediment and poor grades, and he had trouble with discipline throughout his school career, he remained an avid reader. His love of reading soon progressed to a love of writing.West Virginia. Walter’s birth mother, Mary Myers, died after the birth of his younger sister, Imogene. His father, George, sent Walter to live with his first wife, Florence Dean, and her husband, Herbert Dean, in Harlem, along with Florence and George’s two daughters. Walter would eventually adopt the middle name “Dean” to honor Florence and Herbert.
Walter wrote well in high school and one teacher, who recognized his talent but also knew he was going to drop out, told him to keep on writing, no matter what—“It’s what you do,” she said. Walter did drop out of Stuyvesant High School, though they now claim him as a graduate (which Walter always found funny). At the age of seventeen, he enlisted in the Army. Years later, after his safe return home and while working a construction job, Walter would remember this teacher’s advice. He started writing again…and he didn’t stop.
Walter’s body of work includes picture books, novels for teens, poetry, and non-fiction alike. In 1968, Walter’s first published book, Where Does the Day Go?, illustrated by Leo Carty, won an award from the Council on Interracial Books for Children. Walter and his son Christopher, an artist, collaborated on a number of picture books for young readers, including We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart and Harlem, which received a Caldecott Honor Award, as well as the teen novel and National Book Award Finalist Autobiography of My Dead Brother, which Christopher illustrated. Walter’s novel Scorpions won a Newbery Honor Medal and the Margaret A. Edwards Award, while gritty teen novels Lockdown andMonster were both National Book Award Finalists. Monster appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, won the first Michael L. Printz Award, and received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award. His stunning Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel, Fallen Angels (1988), about the Vietnam War, was named one of the top ten American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults of all time. Twenty years later, Myers wrote a riveting contemporary companion novel, Sunrise Over Fallujah, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2008.
In Invasion (2010), Myers once again explored the effects and horrors of war through young protagonists, this time set in World War II. His upcoming books include Juba!, (HarperCollins, April 2015) a novel for teens based on the life of a young African American dancer, and On a Clear Day (Crown/Random House Books for Young Readers, September 2014). A graphic novel adaptation of Monster (HarperCollins) is also forthcoming.
Walter often wrote books about the most difficult time in his own life—his teenage years—for the reader he once was; these were the books that he wished were available when he was that age. Throughout his life, Walter worked to make sure young adults had the tools necessary to become hungry readers, thirsty learners, and, therefore, successful adults. He frequently met with incarcerated teens in juvenile detention centers and received countless letters thanking him for his inspirational words. Walter also worked with and mentored teenage fan and writer Ross Workman, and they published the novel Kick together. As the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature from 2012-2013, Walter traveled around the United States promoting the slogan “Reading is not optional.” He strove to spread the message that a brighter future depends on reading proficiency and widespread literacy, not only during his two-year tenure as National Ambassador, but beyond. More than anything, Walter pushed for his stories to teach children and teenagers never to give up on life.
Walter lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his wife Constance. He is survived by Constance, as well as his two sons, Christopher and Michael Dean. He was predeceased by his daughter, Karen.  “Walter Dean Myers was a compassionate, wonderful, and brilliant man.  He wrote about children who needed a voice and their stories told.  His work will live on for generations to come.  It was an honor to work with him for so many years,” said Miriam Altshuler, Walter’s literary agent.
article via cbcbooks.org

 

13 Year-Old Angela Content Becomes Published Author of Two Books

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2014
13-year-old Angela Content from Brooklyn, NY, is now a published author of two books. (Photo courtesy of CBS 2)
13-year-old Angela Content from Brooklyn, NY, is now a published author of two books. (Photo courtesy of CBS 2)

One Brooklyn eight-grade student has turned her hobby into an early profession, granting her the title of published author.  13-year-old Angela Content says reading is one of her favorite activities — so much so that she decided to write her own stories that have now turned into two self-published books.
Angela’s mother, Marie Content, told CBS New York that she had no idea her daughter was serious about becoming an author until she approached her one day and was surprised to hear the news.
“At first she said, ‘Mommy, I’m going to write a book. I’m writing my own book,’ I said, ‘OK.’ She said, ‘I’m going to publish it.’ I said, ‘OK,’” Marie Content told CBS.
“And then finally one day she said: ‘Mommy, my book is going to publish. I already transmitted everything — it’s going to take 24 hours, they’re going to review it. I said, ‘OK,’” Marie Content said. “And then the next day, I heard it’s on Amazon. I’m like, ‘Oh my God!’”
Angela has written two books: one is a sci-fi fantasy titled “Awake and Alive,” and the other is a romance novel titled “Shattered.” Each book reportedly took her three month to write, with her latest novel reaching just over 200 pages. She also writes the stories by hand — and explains that doing so helps create a constant flow of creativity.

Lupita Nyong'o Options Film Rights to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Americanah"

By goodblacknews on June 1, 2014
Lupita Nyong’o attends the 2014 Annual Garden Brunch at the Beall-Washington House in Washington, DC.
(PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL MORIGI/WIREIMAGE)

Back in March, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie hinted that she was working on something with Lupita Nyong’o but wouldn’t go into detail.  The secret is finally out and Adichie announced Thursday that Nyong’o has optioned the film rights to her novel Americanah.  

According to The Root, the news was revealed by Adichie and announced via Stylist Magazine’s Twitter account saying, “Lupita Nyong’o has optioned rights for the film version of Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie confirms #stylistbookclub.”

The novel is a love story that follows a young couple from Nigeria who face hard choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. Americanah was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review, also winning the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.
Adichie is not stranger to the big screen, her book Half of a Yellow Sun is playing in theaters now and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton.
This will be Nyong’o’s first major film announcement since her Academy Award winning performance in 12 Years a Slave.
article by Dominique Hobdy via essence.com

R.I.P. Acclaimed Author and Activist, Dr. Maya Angelou

By goodblacknews on May 28, 2014

best-Maya-Angelou-Quotes-sayings-wise-people

Maya Angelou, acclaimed author, poet, professor and civil rights activist, has died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86.  Angelou was found by her caretaker this morning, Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines confirmed.

Angelou was set to be honored with the “Beacon of Life Award” at the 2014 Major League Baseball Beacon Award Luncheon on May 30 in Houston, but recently cancelled due to  health problems.  She is survived by her son, author Gus Johnson.

Angelou had a prolific career, published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years. She received dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen, and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, night-club dancer and performer, castmember of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization. She has also been an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs.

Since 1982, she has taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she holds the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Since the 1990s she made around eighty appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.

In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.  To learn more about her life and career, click here.

article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson; @lakinhutcherson

BOOK REVIEW: Going Back to Lagos in Teju Cole's "Every Day Is for the Thief"

By goodblacknews on March 22, 2014
Author Teju Cole and the cover of his book, "Every Day is For the Thief." (©Teju Cole / Random House)
Author Teju Cole and the cover of his book, “Every Day is For the Thief.” (©Teju Cole / Random House)

Imagine a patient, observant and precise writer like the late W.G. Sebald reborn as a Nigerian exile, returning to and then wandering about that country’s teeming and chaotic cultural capital, Lagos. That, in broad strokes, is the voice of the narrator of Teju Cole‘s fine novel, Every Day Is for the Thief.

“The air in the strange environment of this city is dense with story, and it draws me into thinking of life as stories,” Cole’s unnamed narrator says halfway through the novel, as he becomes more deeply immersed in the disorder, the striving, the corruption and the inventiveness of Lagos and its people. “The narratives fly at me from all directions … And that literary texture of lives full of unpredictable narrative, is what appeals.”
Cole earned a large following in the United States for his PEN Faulkner Award-winning Open City, published in 2011. That novel told the story of a Nigerian immigrant and his wanderings in New York City and other places.  The U.S.-born Cole was raised and educated in Nigeria. Before he wrote Open City, he had written Every Day Is for the Thief, his first book, published in Nigeria in 2007, and which Random House is now issuing in the United States for the first time.

BOOK REVIEW: Helen Oyeyemi's "Boy, Snow, Bird" Turns a Fairy Tale Inside Out

By goodblacknews on March 1, 2014

Helen Oyeyemi
The cover of “Boy, Snow, Bird” and author Helen Oyeyemi. (Piotr Cieplak / Riverhead)

The risks that Helen Oyeyemi takes in her fifth novel, Boy, Snow, Bird, are astonishing in their boldness.  “Nobody ever warned me about mirrors,” begins the narrator, Boy, a pale white girl in Manhattan’s East Village whose rat-catcher father beats her until she runs away to a small town in Massachusetts and marries a man she doesn’t love. It is 1953. The man she doesn’t love, a widower, has a small child, also very pale and very beautiful, and very beloved by all, named Snow.

In time, Boy and her husband have their own child, Bird, who is black; this is how Boy discovers that her husband and much of his family have been passing for white. Urged by her husband’s family to give up her telltale baby, Boy instead makes a hard choice: She sends the beloved Snow away.  “Snow is not the fairest of them all,” Boy insists. “And the sooner [they all] understand that, the better.” Love, that magical power, makes Boy protective and destructive at once.

Middle Grade Books for Black History Month

By goodblacknews on February 16, 2014

MightyMissMaloneFebruary is Black History month, and it’s never too soon to get prepared. There are many fabulous middle grade books, both fiction and nonfiction, that will help your family or classroom get in the groove.  One of my all-time favorite authors is Christopher Paul Curtis. His personal story reads like a novel. His bio states that he grew up in Flint, Michigan. After high school he began working on the assembly line at the Fisher Body Plant No. 1 while attending the Flint branch of the University of Michigan, where he began writing essays and fiction.
My favorite of his books is The Watsons Go To Birmingham. It’s about a family from Michigan who travel to visit their relatives in the South. Life in the South is very different from life in Michigan, as they find out. And while they are there, a church in Birmingham is bombed — while the protagonists’s sister is there. An interesting aside that I learned when talking to Curtis at a convention is that the book was originally going to be about the family visiting Orlando. When his older son came home one day with the poem, Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall, he decided to change the destination and include the bombing as part of the story. It’s a powerful book, filled with humor and typical family strife as well as illuminating the social problems of that time. Fourth, fifth and sixth graders love it. There’s a bit of magic in it (the evil “Wool Pooh”) and lots and lots of laughs but also some important historical events. Classroom teachers take note: Reading the poem after the book will REALLY provoke some emotion and thoughtful discussion from your students. There’s also a reading guide for it.
Another of Curtis’ books that is destined to be a classic is Bud, not Buddy, about a young boy leaving an abusive foster care home during the Depression to try to find his father. He has a few clues given to him by his mother, and he has the book he has written called Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself. It’s a story full of adventure and humor, along with emotion and history. It’s a perfect fifth grade book for the whole class to read. Another story arose from “Bud, Not Buddy.” That book is The Mighty Miss Malone and and it also takes place during the Great Depression but with a young girl protagonist.
whatwastheundergroundrrWhat Was the Underground Railroad? is one of the “What Was…” series published by Grosset & Dunlap. Like the other books in the series, it’s a well-written nonfiction book with many interesting facts and stories. There are photographs, maps and black and white illustrations, and they add value to the information contained in the book. There are also many nonfiction text features such as “Contents” and a timeline and bibliography at the back. The reading level and interest level cover a wide range. Advanced third graders will enjoy this book as will middle school students who need slightly easier reading material.
WhoisMichelleobamaWho Was Michelle Obama? is another of the “Who Is…” books by Grosset & Dunlap. Many students know that Michelle Obama is the First Lady and wife of the President of the United States, but many may not know that she came from a family of modest means. She grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and her family lived in a one-bedroom apartment on the second floor of a small house. The book shares information about her childhood, her education, and how she met and married Barack Obama. Interspersed between chapters are pages with information about other noteworthy First Ladies. While this book will probably appeal more to girls than boys, it’s a great nonfiction book which will appeal to a wide range of students.

Chicago Artist Savannah Wood Aims For Engagement, Empowerment With South Side Book Exchange (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on February 4, 2014

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyMplbQkEg0&w=560&h=315]
CHICAGO — If Baltimore native and Chicago transplant Savannah Wood has one regret, it’s that she didn’t take enough time to read all the books she said surrounded her as a youngster.  Though the Chicago-based artist and Rebuild Foundation instructor said she was surrounded by incredible books, she laments that she didn’t stumble upon a book like Richard Wright’s 1940 novel Native Son, which she said she received as part of a book exchange while she was studying abroad in France as a student of the University of Southern California. Reading Native Son, which tells the story of a 20-year-old Chicago man feeling alienated like an expat in his own country, was an experience, she told The Huffington Post, that resonated deeply.  “That was the beginning of my being interested in black literature as a reflection of black life, the positive imagery in black lit,” Wood said in a recent interview. “I want to share that with other people.”
Last week, Wood launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign for Black Ink Book Exchange, an initiative that will eventually become “not quite a library and not quite a bookstore” focused on works written by and about those from the African Diaspora and located inside the University of Chicago’s Arts Incubator in the city’s Washington Park neighborhood.  Wood told HuffPost she was inspired to launch the pop-up exchange after working with renowned Chicago artist Theaster Gates to create a library focused on the works of black authors for a private client. With the Black Ink Book Exchange, she hopes to take that idea and make it publicly accessible in a way that serves as a focal point for the predominately black neighborhood to engage with the arts. She plans to open the space by spring and, during the summertime, move it to other locations on Chicago’s South Side.
books
“I’m hoping to really activate the space and give people a place they can feel they can take some ownership of,” Wood said. “It’s not just to be looked at, but handled.”
Part of the interactivity Wood is aiming for entails the offering of free creative writing and crafting workshops taught in the space by guest artists. Money donated to the project’s $6,000 fundraising goal will go toward paying the artists a stipend for their services, in addition to purchasing books to supplement donated books, furniture and covering administrative costs.
“You can get hands on and make things here too,” Wood said of what makes the exchange different from a traditional library or bookstore. “I’ve been making things my whole life and I think it’s an empowering skill to have to produce something and put it out into the world.”
Visit the Black Ink Book Exchange’s Indiegogo page for additional information about donating funds or books toward the project.
article by Joseph Erbentraut via huffingtonpost.com

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Team with Scholastic to Create A Holiday Children’s Book for 2014

By goodblacknews on January 26, 2014
The “Queen of Christmas,” known for her best-selling holiday digital single “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” makes it no secret that she loves the holidays, and is preparing to release the couple’s first book in fall 2014 — just in time for the holiday season.
The celebrity couple have paired up with children’s book heavyweight Scholastic Press to publish the festive picture book, Roc and Roe’s Twelve Days of Christmas. The book, which is a spin on the classic Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” will feature the couple’s twins Moroccan “Roc” Cannon and Monroe “Roe” Cannon. The illustrations will be handled by New York Times best-selling artist AG Ford.
The Carey-Cannon clan say they are “excited to work with the Scholastic team on our Roc and Roe picture book and we can’t wait until this holiday season. ”
“It’s been such a fun and collaborative process and we are thrilled to be working with Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey on this exciting project. Roc and Roe’s Twelve Days of Christmas is the perfect book to read with your little ones—an adorable spin on a classic tale, sprinkled with humor and heart,” said Ken Geist, VP and editorial director for Scholastic Press Picture Books.
This will be the first book for both Carey and Cannon, but knowing her love for Christmas this may not be her last festive collaboration. In the meantime, Carey is preparing her new album The Art of Letting Go to be released this spring. Cannon serves as the host of America’s Got Talent.
article by M.L. Ward via uptownmagazine.com