David Foster Wallace was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times's David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".
Jonathan Earl Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His novel Freedom (2010) garnered similar praise and led to an appearance on the cover of Time magazine alongside the headline "Great American Novelist". Franzen's latest novel Crossroads was published in 2021, and is the first in a projected trilogy.
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Along with Things Fall Apart, his No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the "African Trilogy". Later novels include A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). In the West, Achebe is often referred to as the "father of African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization.
Amitava Kumar is an Indian writer and journalist who is Professor of English, holding the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College.
Nigerian literature may be roughly defined as the literary writing by citizens of the nation of Nigeria for Nigerian readers, addressing Nigerian issues. This encompasses writers in a number of languages, including not only English but Igbo, Urhobo, Yoruba, and in the northern part of the county Hausa and Nupe. More broadly, it includes British Nigerians, Nigerian Americans and other members of the African diaspora.
John Jeremiah Sullivan is an American writer, musician, teacher, and editor. He is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine, and the southern editor of The Paris Review. In 2014, he edited TheBest American Essays, a collection in which his work has been featured in previous years. He has also served on the faculty of Columbia University, Sewanee: The University of the South, and other institutions.
Francine Prose is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center.
Scott Spencer is an American author who has written fourteen novels. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1993 movie Father Hood. Two of Spencer's novels, Endless Love and Waking the Dead, have been adapted into films. Endless Love was first adapted into a motion picture by Franco Zeffirelli in 1981, and a second adaptation by Shana Feste was released in 2014. Waking the Dead was produced by Jodie Foster and directed by Keith Gordon in 2000. The novels Endless Love and A Ship Made of Paper have both been nominated for the National Book Award, with Endless Love selling over 2 million copies. Spencer has heavily panned both film adaptations of Endless Love.
Deborah Eisenberg is an American short story writer, actress and teacher. She is a professor of writing at Columbia University.
Okechukwu "Okey" Ndibe is a novelist, political columnist, and essayist of Igbo ethnicity. Ndibe was born in Yola, the capital city of Adamawa State, north-eastern Nigeria. He is the author of Arrows of Rain and Foreign Gods, Inc., two critically acclaimed novels published in 2000 and 2014 respectively.
Taiye Selasi is an American writer and photographer. Of Nigerian and Ghanaian origin, she describes herself as a "local" of Accra, Berlin, New York and Rome. In 2005, Selasi published "Bye-Bye, Babar ", her seminal text on Afropolitans. Her novel, Ghana Must Go, was published by Penguin in 2013.
Afropolitan is a term constructed from the name Africa and the ancient Greek word πολίτης ('politis'), meaning 'citizen'. It is an attempt at redefining African phenomena by, on the one hand, placing emphasis on ordinary citizens' experiences in Africa and, on the other hand, reconceptualizing the African Diaspora's relationship with the African continent. Afropolitanism is used and defined in various ways. The novelist Taiye Selasi and the political theorist Achille Mbembe are immediately associated with the coinage of the term and its fundamental theorization.
Rebecca Norris Webb is an American photographer. Originally a poet, her books often combine text and images. An NEA grant recipient, she has work in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and The Cleveland Museum of Art. Her photographs have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Le Monde, and other magazines. She sometimes collaborates with photographer Alex Webb, her husband and creative partner.
"Je suis Charlie" is a slogan and logo created by French art director Joachim Roncin and adopted by supporters of freedom of speech and freedom of the press after the 7 January 2015 shooting in which twelve people were killed at the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo. It identifies a speaker or supporter with those who were killed at the Charlie Hebdo shooting, and by extension, a supporter of freedom of speech and resistance to armed threats. Some journalists embraced the expression as a rallying cry for the freedom of self-expression.
Every Day Is for the Thief is a 2007 novel by Nigerian-American author Teju Cole. The unnamed protagonist of the novel returns to Lagos after fifteen years in New York City, only to find himself changed by living abroad and confused by the city. The novel was first published in Nigeria, but was later republished in the United States.
Open City is a 2011 novel by Nigerian-American writer Teju Cole. The novel is primarily set in New York City, and concerns a Nigerian immigrant, Julius, who has recently broken up with his girlfriend. The novel received praise for its prose and depiction of New York.
Otosirieze Obi-Young is a Nigerian writer, editor, culture journalist and curator. He is editor of Open Country Mag. He was editor of Folio Nigeria, a then CNN affiliate, and former deputy editor of Brittle Paper. In 2019, he won the inaugural The Future Awards Africa Prize for Literature. He has been described as among the "top curators and editors from Africa."
Glenna Gordon is an American documentary photographer, photojournalist, editor, and educator based in New York City. She is known for documenting such event as the Ebola outbreak, ISIS and Al Qaeda's hostage situations, and the kidnapping of more than two hundred and fifty Nigerian school girls. She is also known for her documentation of Nigerian weddings. Her work has been commissioned by The New York Times Magazine, Time, The Wall Street Journal, and Smithsonian. Gordon is an adjunct professor at the New School in New York City and an editor at Red Hook Editions.
Tremor is a 2023 novel by Nigerian-American author Teju Cole.
Tolu Daniel is a Nigerian writer and essayist whose work explores themes of migration, urban life, and the African Diasporic experience. A graduate of Washington University in St Louis with an MFA in Creative Writing, and Kansas State University with an MA in English. Tolu is currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature, with research interests that include radio drama, cultural memory, black diaspora, and postcolonial studies. His essays are known for their innovative use of narrative structures, blending personal and collective histories with a peripatetic mode inspired by writers like W.G. Sebald. Tolu is also the founder of Ellipsis, a newsletter featuring Diasporic voices on Culture, Migration, Displacement and Literature via Personal Essays & Interviews. Tolu has served or is currently serving in several Editorial Boards, including Panorama Journal of Intelligent Travel,Spectacle Magazine, TSSF Journal, Touchstone Literary Journal, Afridiaspora and a few others.
