Books and Music and Films I Love

Listening to some Mango Groove on my earphones while doing some red-tape tonight, I had an idea to put together a list of recent reads. I love to take books I have read some time ago and then page through them again, often when I read a new book by the same author. There is always a pile next to my bed and I often read a couple of books at the same time.

Because I went to see The Tempest last week in the theatre, it needed a bit of a re-read although it was my matric Shakespeare. Similarly seeing the opera Lakmé for the first time, made me buy the CD.


So above in this banner I put some of the books I read and re-read in recent months.

As well as the music I like to listen to and some of the DVD's I watched in recent months.

 

Penguin Prize for African Writing

Time to update my blog. Ever since I got back from South Africa in September 2010 where I attended the Mail and Guardian Literary Festival and off course the Penguin Prize giving evening, I have suffered a severe case of writer's block. But on a sunny winter's day in Germany, I feel inspired and it is time to start writing again.

The Penguin Non-fiction Prize for African Writing for which I was also nominated, was won by Pius Adesanmi from Nigeria for You’re Not a Country, Africa! Congratulations to him and I certainly do look forward to reading his book, which will be out soon. Pius is professor of English in Canada, and like so many of us, no longer live on the Continent.

"In this groundbreaking collection of essays Pius Adesanmi tries to unravel what it is that Africa means to him as an African, and by extension to all those who inhabit this continent of extremes. This is a question that exercised some of the continent’s finest minds in the twentieth century, but which pan-Africanism, Negritude,nationalism, decolonisation and all the other projects through which Africans sought to restore their humanity ultimately failed to answer. Crisscrossing the continent, Adesanmi engages with the enigma that is Africa in an attempt to make meaning of this question for all twenty-first century Africans."

(c) Isabella Morris. Some of the South African nominees at the Penguin Award Ceremony. Me, Isabella Morris, Shubnum Khan, Tebogo Tlharipe.

As for Traitor's Daughter, I'm currently doing a re-edit before sending off the manuscript to interested publishers. So hold thumbs!

Traitor's Daughter

I am delighted  that my manuscript, Traitor's Daughter made the Penguin shortlist for African Writing. Congratulations to all the other fine writers on the shortlist.

"Penguin Books South Africa is delighted to announce the shortlists for the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing.

Having received approximately 250 submissions in the fiction category and 50 in the non-fiction category from countries all over Africa, Penguin Books South Africa is pleased to announce the names of the shortlisted authors for the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing. This award seeks to highlight the diverse writing talent on the African continent and make new African fiction and non-fiction available to a wider readership.

The shortlisted authors for the Penguin Prize for African Writing are:

Fiction

Ellen Aaku (Zambia)

Moraa Gitaa (Kenya)

Chika Ezeanya (Nigeria)

Shubnum Khan (South Africa)

Isabella Morris (South Africa)

Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ (Kenya)

Non-fiction

Pius Adesanmi (Nigeria)

Andrew Barlow (South Africa)

Ruth Carneson (South Africa)

Ahmed Mortiar (South Africa)

Tanure Ojaide (Nigeria)

Anli Serfontein (South Africa)

Tebogo Tlharipe (South Africa)

These manuscripts have been sent to the judges and the winners will be announced on Saturday 4 September 2010 at the Mail and Guardian Literary Festival. The prize in each category will be R50 000 and a publishing contract with Penguin Books South Africa, with worldwide distribution via Penguin Group companies.