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While book publishing continues to suffer in the West, it appears to be experiencing a renaissance throughout Africa in cities like Nairobi, Lagos, Abuja, Johannesburg, and even Harare. Over the past decade, these cities have become epicenters of a literary renaissance with truly pan-African potential. There are prestige publishers, big-money prizes and literary festivals galore. With a spate of new literary festivals, prizes, and media attention, African authors are on the rise, and their stories represent a new identity forming for the continent. The stories have shifted, too. Nowadays, there’s little angsting about national identity in a post-colonial context or, for that matter, over catastrophe and want. Instead, a bevy of young Africans are shaping the future of fiction, reportage and critique on their continent, and perhaps well beyond.

SOURCE: OZY