A dazzling collection from across the African continent and diaspora here SHORT STORY DAY AFRICA has assembled the best nineteen stories from their 2013 competition. Food is at the centre of stories from authors emerging and established, blending the secular, the supernatural, the old and the new in a spectacular celebration of short fiction. Civil wars, evictions, vacations, feasts and romances the stories we bring to our tables that bring us together and tear us apart.

An NPR Best Book of 2019 A New York Times, Washington Post, Telegraph, and BBC’s most anticipated book of August 2019 One of Time’s 32 Books You Need to Read This Summer A stunning debut novel, from Rhodes Scholar and winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Tope Folarin about a Nigerian family living in Utah and their uncomfortable assimilation to American life. Living in small-town Utah has always been an uneasy fit for Tunde Akinola’s family, especially for his Nigeria-born parents. Though Tunde speaks English with a Midwestern accent, he can’t escape the children who rub his skin and ask why the black won’t come off. As he struggles to fit in and find his place in the world, he finds little solace from his parents who are grappling with their own issues. Tunde’s father, ever the optimist, works tirelessly chasing his American dream while his wife, lonely in Utah without family and friends, sinks deeper into schizophrenia. Then one otherwise-ordinary morning, Tunde’s mother wakes him with a hug, bundles him and his baby brother into the car, and takes them away from the only home they’ve ever known. But running away doesn’t bring her, or her children, any relief from the demons that plague her; once Tunde’s father tracks them down, she flees to Nigeria, and Tunde never feels at home again. He spends the rest of his childhood and young adulthood searching for connection—to the wary stepmother and stepbrothers he gains when his father remarries; to the Utah residents who mock his father’s accent; to evangelical religion; to his Texas middle school’s crowd of African-Americans; to the fraternity brothers of his historically black college. In so doing, he discovers something that sends him on a journey away from everything he has known. Sweeping, stirring, and perspective-shifting, A Particular Kind of Black Man is a beautiful and poignant exploration of the meaning of memory, manhood, home, and identity as seen through the eyes of a first-generation Nigerian-American.

Now in its 21st year, the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is African’s leading literary prize, and is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. The collection brings together the five stories on the 2020 shortlist. The authors shortlisted for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize are: - Jowhor Ile (Nigeria) for Fisherman’s Stew - Rémy Ngamije (Rwanda/Namibia) for The Neighbourhood Watch - Irenosen Okojie (Nigeria) for Grace Jones - Erica Sugo Anyadike (Tanzania) for How to Marry an African President - Chikodili Emeladu (Nigeria) for What to do when your child brings home a Mami Wata The 2020 judging panel comprises: - Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp (Chair) has over 35 years’ experience in the UK arts and cultural sector, including a 25-year career as a dancer, choreographer, teacher and director. Since May 2018 he has been Director of The Africa Centre. - Audrey Brown is a South African broadcast journalist, who currently presents the BBC World Service flagship daily news and current affairs programme, Focus on Africa. Gabriel Gbadamosi is an Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright. His London novel Vauxhall (2013) won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize and Best International Novel at the Sharjah Book Fair. - James Murua is a Kenya-based blogger, journalist, podcaster and editor who has written for a variety of media outlets in a career spanning print, web and TV. - Ebissé Wakjira-Rouw is an Ethiopian-born non-fiction editor, podcaster, publisher and policy advisor at the Dutch Council for Culture in the Netherlands.

This third edition of stories from the Caine Prize for African Writing includes works by writers from Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa, most of whom have never before been published.

Now in its sixteenth year, the Caine Prize for African Writing is Africa’s leading literary prize, and is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. This collection collects the five 2015 shortlisted stories, along with stories written at the Caine Prize Writers’ Workshop, which took place in April 2015.

Africa has produced some of the best writing of the twentieth century from Chinua Achebe, Ayi Kwei Armah, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and the Nobel Laureates Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee and Doris Lessing, to more recent talents like Nuruddin Farah, Ben Okri, Aminatta Forna and Brian Chikwava. Who will be the next generation?Following the successful launch of Bogotá39, which identified many of the most interesting upcoming Latin American talents, including Daniel Alarcon, Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize), Santiago Roncagliolo (Independent Foreign Fiction Prize) and Juan Gabriel Vásquez (short-listed for the IFFP), and Beirut39 which published Randa Jarrar, Rabee Jaber, Joumana Haddad, Abdellah Taia and Samar Yazbek, Africa39 will bring to worldwide attention the best work from Africa and its diaspora. From the dazzling list of 39 writers chosen by the judges, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey has selected richly rewarding short stories, extracts from novels, fables and other work by writers from Africa south of the Sahara, or its diaspora, and created a collection of some of the most varied and exciting new work in world literature today. Africa39 is a Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club project which aims to select and celebrate 39 of the best young African writers from south of the Sahara. It will be launched at the PH Book Festival in UNESCO's World Book Capital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in October 2014. The three judges are: Margaret Busby, Elechi Amadi, Osonye Tess Onwueme

The International Society of Literary Fellows (Lsi) is the society of creative writers and scholars from African and the world with a critical interest in current developments around modern cultures of indigenous and foreign language expressions. In partnership with Progeny international, the Lsi aims to assess and promote the emergence of works of visionary creative impetus in the genres of modern African fiction, non-fiction and visual arts. 38 stories are included in this anthology.