BRITTLE PAPER

Your go-to site for African writing and literary culture. We bring you all the latest news on publications, authors, events, prizes, and lifestyle.

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

✨ BP 100 Notable African Books of 2025 are here! 🎉
27 countries. New voices. Romance + speculative fiction on the rise. African & indie publishers leading the way. In spite of all the challenges, the culture is doing more than just okay👏🏿 Full list 👇📚 https://t.co/T8vrthpGS2

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

.@CassavaRepublic Press wants your best Literary Fiction and Speculative Fiction manuscripts by June 30. The press behind THE MERCY STEP is looking for new, imaginative writing that reflects the best of what the Black world has to offer ✍🏾✨ https://t.co/boLpWzOPBl

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

Sudanese-American novelist Fatin Abbas is bringing GHOST SEASON to the UK this June for a five-stop paperback tour, with events in Brighton, Sevenoaks, and London. Catch her from June 20 to 27! 📚🖋️ https://t.co/SVRaorSqRh

[J I D E S A L A W U @jidesalawu]

Thank you, @brittlepaper

Excerpt: Sea Stories and Other Poems from Contraband Bodies by Jide Salawu https://t.co/0hfP7g7lve

[The Shallow Tales Review @ShallowTales]

“One of the things that intrigue me whenever reading work by diasporic writers is that they are drawing from the same epistemological space as the African writers on the continent.” — Goretti Kyomuhendo (via @brittlepaper)

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

The 2026 @WasafiriMag New Writing Prize is open for fiction, poetry, and life writing. No nationality restrictions. Winners receive £1,000 and publication in Wasafiri. Submit by June 30! 🖋️ https://t.co/aGnx0uLZ2A

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

Saraba Magazine has opened two submission calls: new unpublished work due June 30, and the Revival Project, which is reclaiming African writing buried in defunct journals and print-only archives 🗞️ @Sarabamag

https://t.co/i5BIQxzQoI

[Chideraa @Deraa_akaenyi]

Go read @Maenad20's critical review of Oyin Braithwaite's latest, Cursed Daughters out from @brittlepaper. The Nigerian literary ecosystem needs more honest, critical reviews of books, and this is one of them.

See here:
https://t.co/AnaichujzM

[Modupsy @du_peee]

throwback to our launch party : ) Brittle Paper will forever be known in history as a pivotal part of documenting and archiving within the African literary scene/space.

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

Nigerian writers took home three Locus Awards in one night. @Nnedi Okorafor won Best Science Fiction Novel and Best Illustrated Book. @somto_Ihezue won Best Novelette. Nigeria showed up 🏆✨ https://t.co/sPWVENebXN

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

.@MajestyAfrica_ has launched a fully funded four-week residency for emerging women writers without literary representation from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. Applications are due June 22! 👩🏾‍💻 https://t.co/VeApN92uTE

[Lena|| Book Reviewer 🇳🇬 @lenahelenpeter]

So True!

[Sacchie | Book Influencer 🇳🇬 @sacchiereads]

And everything he said is correct.

[The New Yorker @NewYorker]

“If you wish to belong to yourself, you must forgive your mother. She knows not what she does or has done. But we do.” Read Taiye Selasi’s short story for firstborn immigrant daughters: https://t.co/TPkBvOAq5G

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

“I genuinely think that book influencers are, to some extent, shouldering the work of marketing in Nigeria today.” @IkechukwuChielo makes the case for book influencing as a serious literary practice in our latest interview. 🎙️
https://t.co/qveuDJVLDy

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

Nathacha Appanah’s LA NUIT AU CŒUR has been chosen by student readers in Mauritius for the Prix Goncourt Choix de l’île Maurice, making Mauritius the 25th country to award her the Choix Goncourt, a record in the prize’s history 📖🖋️

https://t.co/ZdMXvGWy1U

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

Four African writers have secured six nominations at the 2026 British Fantasy Awards. @MHAyinde, @EugenBacon, C.L. Hellisen, and @EzeiyokeC. Winners announced at Fantasycon in Glasgow, October 9–11 📚✨

https://t.co/OcqhRygFwB

[J I D E S A L A W U @jidesalawu]

Thank you so much @brittlepaper
Nigerian-Canadian Poet Jide Salawu Earns Double Shortlist Nod from the League of Canadian Poets for Debut Collection Contraband Bodies https://t.co/SeONL6Rhzb

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

Stella Gaitano writes in Arabic so that northern Sudanese can hear southern stories. Safae el Khannoussi wrote a debut that broke thirty years of Dutch literary prize history. Both are shortlisted for the 2026 Internationaler Literaturpreis 🖋️🏆

https://t.co/ROs2hcpdIP

[BRITTLE PAPER @brittlepaper]

The 2026 Karoo Writers Festival returns to Cradock from June 18 to 20, hosted at the childhood home of Olive Schreiner, South Africa’s first internationally celebrated writer. Three days of readings, launches, and conversation 📖☕️

https://t.co/20gPM0Q8GT

[Mdadisi @Udadisi]

“That Yale is hosting this conversation in Zanzibar rather than New Haven is a significant gesture that the field is at least trying to situate knowledge production closer to its actual subjects”—👇🏿