21st Century Literature 2nd Quarter Week 2

Literary Works and Famous Authors in Africa

1. AFRICA The second largest continent Its known in rich in natural resources ranging from arable land, water, oil, natural gas, minerals, forests and wildlife . Africa was originally dubbed the “Dark Continent” by Welsh journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who saw Africa as mysterious. Its landscapes and cultures were largely unknown to many outsiders until the late nineteenth century.

2. African literature is literature from Africa , either oral ("orature") or written in African and Afro-Asiatic languages. Examples of pre-colonial African literature can be traced back to at least the fourth century AD. The best-known is the Kebra Negast , or "Book of Kings. “ African literature has an inclusive awareness that emphasizes an artistic use of words as a way to teach important truths and remind their community of what their ancestors once went through.

3. African Writers

4. J. M. COETZEE (February 9, 1940) is a South African-born novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He has also won the Booker Prize twice, the Jerusalem Prize, CNA Prize (thrice), the Prix Femina étranger, The Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as other awards and honors, holds a number of honorary doctorates and is one of the most acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language.

5. J. M. COETZEE (February 9, 1940) He relocated to Australia in 2002 and lives in Adelaide. He became an Australian citizen in 2006. “As a Woman Grows Older”, tells the story of an encounter of three fictional characters: Elizabeth Costello and her two grown up children

6. HENRIETTA ROSE-INNES (September 14, 1971) is a South African novelist and short-story writer. She was the 2008 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing for her speculative-fiction story "Poison". Her novel Nineveh was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Prize for Fiction and the M-Net Literary Awards.

7. HENRIETTA ROSE-INNES (September 14, 1971) In September of that year her story "Sanctuary" was awarded second place in the 2012 BBC (Inter)national Short Story Award. Poison (science fiction)- it's about an explosion at a chemical plant in Cape Town that sends a slowly spreading  poison  cloud across the city into the countryside.

8. PETINA GAPPAH (1971) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language. She is currently based in Berlin, where she has a DAAD Artist-in Residence fellowship.

9. PETINA GAPPAH (1971) In 2016, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by Brittle Paper. Gappah's first book, An Elegy for Easterly, a story collection that she says is "about what it has meant to be a Zimbabwean in recent times", was published by Faber and Faber in April 2009 in the United Kingdom and in June 2009 in the United States. Hyde Park (creative non fiction)-   about the bizarre and wonderful experience of the author and the main character, Peina   Gappah during her summer of 1997

10. IDEA VILARIÑO (August 18, 1920 – April 28, 2009) was a Uruguayan poet, essayist and literary critic. She belonged to the group of intellectuals known as " Generación del 45." She also worked as a translator, composer and lecturer.

11. IDEA VILARIÑO (August 18, 1920 – April 28, 2009) You Didn't Know (poem) by Idea Vilarino (Uruguay) translated by Jesse Lee Kercheval

12. KOFI AWOONOR (1935 – September 21, 2013) was a Ghanaian poet and author whose work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people and contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization. He started writing under the name George Awoonor - Williams, and was also published as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor . He taught African literature at the University of Ghana.

13. KOFI AWOONOR (1935 – September 21, 2013) Professor Awoonor was among those who were killed in the September 2013 attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a participant at the Storymoja Hay Festival. The First Circle (poem)- Awoonor shares his personal experience of being poked at with a gun and finds a crow to open his mind to the relationship between death and violence. 

14. LADAN OSMAN is a Somali-American poet and teacher. Her poetry is centered on her Somali and Muslim heritage, and has been published in a number of prominent literary magazines. In February 2014, Osman was named the winner of the annual Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for her collection The Kitchen Dweller's Testimony.

15. LADAN OSMAN The $1000 award was accompanied by the publication of her poetry anthology by the University of Nebraska Press in conjunction with Amalion Press. Tonight (poem)- about a simple, trivial moment in the poet's life , although it is wonderfully complex.