Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond's Blog
April 23, 2017
Truth is the Writer's Revolution
If love is the highest ideal in society, the foundation and currency of any sustainable societal and human improvement, then truth is the way a writer loves. If love is patient, kind, never envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude, not insistent on its own way, not irritable, or resentful, not rejoicing at wrongdoing, but with the truth; if love bears all things,... Read more.
December 12, 2016
Bob Dylan's Nobel Speech: "Are My Songs Literature?"
When Bob Dylan was named recipient of the The Nobel Prize in Literature, response among writers and cultural critics was mixed. In “Why Bob Dylan Shouldn’t Have Gotten a Nobel,” editor and author Anna North argued from the New York Times opinion section: “Yes, Mr. Dylan is a brilliant lyricist. Yes, he has written a book of... Read more.
The 2017 PEN America Literary Awards Longlist Is Here
On Friday December 9th, PEN America announced the books longlisted for 2017 PEN America Literary Awards. Finalists will be named on January 18, 2017, and winners on February 22nd, in advance of the awards ceremony on March 27th at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium in New York. Here they are: PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize ($25,000): For a fiction... Read more.
December 6, 2016
Lydia Polgreen is the new Huffington Post Editor-in-Chief
Lydia Polgreen, a former New York Times associate masthead editor and editorial director of NYT Global, is succeeding founding editor Arianna Huffington at the Huffington Post. In an interview she gave the news and opinion site, Polgreen indicated how she plans to steer the content focus in the wake of the media echo chamber the 2016 election... Read more.
December 5, 2016
Octavia Butler's Word of Encouragement to Herself
Sometimes, you have to encourage yourself. With 2016 coming to a close, take a page out of Octavia E. Butler’s discovered notebook, and write down your dreams for your writing career. Believe they will come true. “See to it!”
December 3, 2016
2016 Miles Morland Winners Announced
And the Winners are: *Abdul Adan – Somalia *Ayesha Harruna Attah – Ghana *Lidudumalingani Mqombothi – South Africa *Nneoma Ike-Njoku – Nigeria — The fourth annual Miles Morland Scholarship for African writers has announced an impressive shortlist: *Abdul Adan – Somalia (Shortlisted for the 2016 Caine Prize; Founding member of the Jalada collective) *Jekwu Anyaegbuna – Nigeria (Shortlisted for the 2012... Read more.
2016 Miles Morland Shortlist Announced
The fourth annual Miles Morland Scholarship for African writers has announced an impressive shortlist: *Abdul Adan – Somalia (Shortlisted for the 2016 Caine Prize; Founding member of the Jalada collective) *Jekwu Anyaegbuna – Nigeria (Shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize: Africa; Shortlisted by novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for the Farafina Trust International Creative Writers’ Programme) *Ayesha... Read more.
Election Post-Mortem
It’s been almost a month since candidate Donald Trump became President-Elect Donald Trump, and among the many other things his win has exposed, it has revealed how easy it is to exploit our balkanized news media to selfish ends. In principle, journalism is about enlightening the public with “information that is accurate, fair and thorough,” but, many... Read more.
October 13, 2016
Bob Dylan Won the Nobel Prize in Literature!
Our cultural definition of literature has officially been blown wide open with the Swedish Academy’s award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to songwriter Bob Dylan. Past prizes have recognized essayists, playwrights, poets, novelists, and writers of various genres of non-fiction prose, but this is the first time the Nobel has been awarded to an artist primarily known for writing songs. The... Read more.
October 6, 2016
National Book Awards 2016
UPDATE: The 2016 National Book Award Winners are: FICTION Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad NON-FICTION Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America POETRY Daniel Borzutzky’s The Performance of Becoming Human YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell’s March: Book Three — The National Book Awards, set for November... Read more.
