Charting New Platforms, Ideas and Forms: The Place of Literary Magazines in African Literature

Charting New Platforms, Ideas and Forms: The Place of Literary Magazines in African Literature

Sunday 5 July

13.30 – 14.30, FREE

With Kinsi Abdulleh, Editor of SCARF; Kadija George, Editor of Sable; Billy Kahora, Editor of Kwani?and Associate Editor of Chimurenga Chronic and Ndinda Kioko, Editor of Jalada. Chaired by Nana Yaa Mensah, New Statesman.

Literary magazines and journals from Transition and Black Orpheus to Chimurenga and Farafina have shaped the production and reception of African literature and ideas. Here editors of both established and new publications showcase their latest issues and share their commissioning processes, while reflecting on the form and influence of literary magazines for African writing today.

Across the session, we ask: Does the digital space create opportunities for 21st-century literary magazines to be more genuinely pan-African both in their readership and the communities of writers they represent? Does the literary magazine enable African literature and ideas to develop across more experimental and multimedia forms? Do these publications identify as part of, and are they influenced by, the historical trajectory of ‘African literary magazines’?

Click here for the RAS Mixcloud recording.

Image Source: Chimurenga/Jalada/Kwani?