African Writing is a literary paper with an online presence. It is the first open sales publication of its kind with an All-African perspective, offering new writing from, and information on, the literatures of the continent.

African Writing is interested in the literary lives, literary work and thoughts of those who make writing happen in the African world, and in the organizations and circumstances which support or affect the processing, appreciation and study of their work. Catering for the varying levels of readership interests, our literary paper, and its online edition, will offer interviews and reviews, literary profiles, some criticism and political commentary, new poetry and fiction, creative non-fiction, performance sketches and visual arts work. We will reflect the faces, controversies and peculiar flavour of the African writing world, a world increasingly inclusive in the processing of its familiarisation with other world writings and writers.

For us at African Writing, this has been a journey of discovery. Encounter the fifty representative writers of our ‘Profiles’ pages, follow the narratives, utterances and reported achievements of the many other poets and story-makers in this introductory issue, and, perhaps, you will agree with us that even for the expert much of contemporary writing in Africa awaits discovery. Join us in that journey of discovery.

African Writing is edited by Afam Akeh, and is available monthly on subscription and from selected bookshops from September 2007. The debut issue of African Writing is now online at Online submissions of new writing and all letters responding to our work may be addressed to [email][email protected] Enquiries from advertisers, and promoters of literary activities or products intended for our readership can be directed to [email][email protected]