Lagos – The MTN Foundation, in partnership with Beeta Universal Arts Foundation, recently hosted the much-anticipated finale of the 6th Beeta Playwright Competition, spotlighting Nigeria’s next generation of playwrights. The event saw the top ten finalists compete for the prestigious award, providing an exciting opportunity for new literary voices to shine. In a notable departure from previous editions, this year’s competition featured 40 selected candidates, expanding its scope and opening doors for more emerging talents to showcase their craft. The competition aims to empower playwrights to bring to the stage compelling, authentic Nigerian stories that reflect the richness of local…

The shortlists for the British Science Fiction Association’s BSFA Awards for works published in 2023 have been revealed, and African writers were very well represented. Wole Talabi was on the shortlist for Best Novel for his Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Best Collection for Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology which he edited, as well as Best Non-Fiction (Short) for Prisoners in the Temple of the Muses.  Also scoring double shortlists is Suyi Davies Okungbowa in Best Short Fiction for Lady Koi Koi: A Book Report, and Best Non-Fiction (Short) for Exposition Tax: The Hidden Burden of Writing from the Margins.…

Reviewer : Taiwo Michael Oloyede When sorrows come, they come not in single spies, but in battalions.  -Williams Shakespeare In, On The Train To Hell, Tolu  A’ Akinyemi  writes  gravely about diurnal issues of life that is common to man ; macerating us in the  rigour of his storytelling adeptness, suffused in grainy elocutions. From the title of the book, we ram through the inflorescence of poignant narratives from the first page and weave in between surreal verses to the core of his renderings. In the opening poem, dust to dust, we come in contact with the rinds of grief…

Ademilola Rhodes chanced on the station. She had just returned home after twelve grueling hours in a Brooklyn care-giving home. At 63, she knew she was not supposed to be doing that sort of tedious job, but she had decided long ago to make lemonade out of the lemon America threw at her. Chief Fehintola was the first person she noticed on the broadcast going on when she switched on the television. 

Dami Ajayi is plugged as a lyrical poet whose use of language and style is daring, visceral, empathetic and sweeping. … You picked the best place to have an argument. A train coach heading from Berlin to Cologne. You picked the best time, too; the quiet time before travellers eased into siesta.  The above lines float the same texture of bewilderment spooled by Brenda Hillman in the poem: During an enchantment in the life. The poem details how we are consumed by love, get beaten more than twice, and become unwieldy disposed to new possibilities – and how we drown…