African Writer Magazine is a New Jersey-based monthly publication that celebrates established and emerging African writers, literature and ideas. For two decades, we have laid out a conspicuous platform showcasing the best of contributions from African Writers worldwide. The website is wholly powered by volunteers.
The Journey
We’ve been here a while. The actual journey started in 2001 as the Writers Write section of another website, the now defunct Nigeriansinamerica.com. Back then, only a handful of African writers were acknowledged on the still emerging internet; names like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. We started by publishing a sampling of poetry from our writer friends already contributing features to Nigeriansinamerica.com. The earliest entries were from Olu Oguibe, Folasayo Dele-Ogunrinde (late), Kayode Aderinokun, Kole Ade-Odutola, Denrele Ogunwa, Godwin Amatoritsero Ede, Sola Osofisan, Akin Adesokan… We called it “writers from a country in progress.” The focus was obviously on Nigerian writers. (See The Internet Archives).
This poetry section quickly assumed a life of its own and in 2004, we moved all the literary content to this dedicated domain, Africanwriter.com. Here we are today, so many years later, still as welcoming of adventurous writing as ever, and still featuring works by emerging as well as established African writers and dreamers.
We had a ringside seat as advances in telecommunications and information technology democratised web access across the African continent, and we are very proud to say that some of the biggest names in modern African literature today were published here long before they found stardom on bookshelves and became household names.
Contribute
The writers here, scattered across the globe – from Nigeria to the ivory towers of Frankfurt – remain united by their African roots and hopes and the unyielding umbilical cord of their creativity. African Writer Magazine is a monthly publication that explores the African presence at home and abroad. We welcome well-written stories, essays, poetry, and other literary works from anyone, with a special focus on writing about African people, places, ideas, experiences, and more. We publish writers at all stages of their careers. Dare to add your voice to the gathering thunder.
To get a feel of the kind of materials we publish, please read through the entries posted here in the different categories. The Submissions page has additional information. If you are confident that you can write as well as the writers we have published, or you believe your voice is unique enough to command attention, please contact us via write/@/africanwriter.com (delete the slashes).
Thanks!
Sola Osofisan (Founder and editor-in-chief)