A Spirit Born into a Human Body: Talking with Akwaeke Emezi
Akwaeke Emezi discusses her debut novel, Freshwater, her public and private identities, and deciding when to translate culture for readers.
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Posts Tagged: Chinua Achebe
Slush Piles in White
The sensibilities of whiteness do not want us to work, do not want us to think, do not want us to imagine outside of its bounds.
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The Rumpus Interview with Robert Glancy
Robert Glancy discusses his sophomore novel, Please Do Not Disturb, growing up under a dictatorship, borrowing and stealing from reality, and his love of proverbs.
...moreLanguage as Both Salve and Poison
What I have seen, what we have seen, is language forced into the service of violence. A rhetoric of desperation and devastation molded into the incomprehensible, then vomited out in images and words that we cannot ignore though we have tried. Lit Hub shares a beautiful, heart-rending essay by Maaza Mengiste, a meditation on Chinua Achebe, the […]
...moreSoyinka Clears the Record on Achebe
“Achebe A Celebrated Storyteller, But No Father Of African Literature, Says Soyinka.” The headline sound sensationalistic and snipey, but this interview with Wole Soyinka about the death of Chinua Achebe is nuanced and comprehensive, if more than a little prickly. Soyinka discusses what it’s like to lose a friend and colleague—and what it’s like to deal […]
...more“We Should Revere Him Better“
A fantastic essay at The New Inquiry inspects the recently deceased Chinua Achebe’s place in the Western literary canon. In an interview a few years ago, Norman Rush was talking about the ways he was influenced by African writers, and he mentioned that “No non-African could do what Achebe has done.” And I get what he was saying. But there’s […]
...moreRIP Chinua Achebe (1930–2013)
We’re saddened by the news that novelist and poet Chinua Achebe passed away today. Here are just a few conversations from his long and impacting legacy: In a 2009 interview with All Things Considered, Achebe discussed his first and most famous novel, Things Fall Apart. Chinua spoke recently about the importance of storytelling. Revisit the Paris Review’s […]
...moreNotable New York, This Week 10/19-10/25
This week, Chinua Achebe speaks, n+1 in conversation with Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat, Jonathan Lethem reads, composer/drummer Bobby Previte with Psychedelic Furs’ Knox Chandler, photographer Jeff Wall presents more urban decay, “junkyard bohos” Huggabroomstik play, CMJ Music Marathon begins and Renée Fleming sings at the Met. MONDAY 10/19: Chinua Achebe, whose first book in […]
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