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Guide: Queer African Reads
Let’s start with the obvious: Neither “African literature” nor “queer literature” are stable, precise, unproblematic categories. Here I collect books by African and African‑diasporic authors. The books are either written by openly queer writers and/or and feature queerness in some prominent way. As of now, there is a regional bias in this list which partially reflects the publishing realities but also my own reading biases. Furthermore, the guide is obviously not a complete representation but limited not only by what I have read so far but also by what I have access to (language, availability etc). The descriptions below are partially reviews I have written over the time and some…
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#ReclaimHerName – or maybe don’t?
In 1939, Ann Petry published her first short story “Marie of the Cabin Club” though the name “Ann Petry” was not listed as the author, instead, it was “Arnold Petry”. Like her, throughout history, women have taken on masculine pen names in order to publish their writing in a sexist and misogynistic (publishing) world. To celebrate its 25th birthday the Women’s Prize for Fiction has put together a box of books by authors who had been published previously under masculine pen names. In these new editions, their (supposedly) ‘real’ names are used. The cover designs – all by female designers – look striking and many people have been fanning over…
