Blog: March to May 2016

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Nick Wood

Just a brief update this time. I've added another SF in SA (27) Essay, entitled: 'One Language is Never Enough: On Both Harnessing and Resisting the Western Gaze.' (With both a debt and thanks to a wonderful writer, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz - and ongoing warm wishes!) I have a story, Dream-Hunter, in the latest edition of Omenana Magazine. But please read through the entire magazine, which has a wide variety of really good, really interesting African SFF, as well as an excellent article by Wol...

SF in SA (27) One Language is Never Enough: On Both Harnessing and Resisting the Western Gaze (May 2016)

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Nick Wood

Why do we write? And, perhaps even more importantly, for whom do we write? We certainly would not write if there was no reader, even if that reader remains just us. So writing appears to form an act of communication, often with our selves, but we may also write with a reading audience in mind. The problem I've found though is, what happens if you try and target (at least two), quite radically disparate audiences? But then that's been a constant tension I've faced, growing up white in Africa. Wh...

Blog – Jan/Feb 2016 – Azanian Bridges

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Nick Wood

Soon to be launched, my debut novel 'Azanian Bridges' via the excellent NewCon Press. You can read the opening chapter via Books Live SA here. Two reviews of 'AZANIAN BRIDGES' have come out to date, the first on the SFBook Review site here. Yes, 'Azanian Bridges is the kind of science fiction we need...!' (Not surprising I'd agree, of course!) The second is by Dr. Mark Bould here. Given the centrality of a current existing apartheid within the narrative counterfactual, I have also felt ...

Blog – September to December 2015

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Nick Wood

2015, Best Of (and More) Sorry for several months’ silence, but now is an ideal time for both looking back (2015) and looking ahead (2016). There are many and various 'best of' SFF lists for 2015, but few better - and Afrocentric too! - than Wole Talabi's list of best African SFF. A more generic list is compiled on Nina Allan's website, herself a wonderful writer too - in which she focuses on works to recommend for the 2015 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards. Firstly, she f...

SF in SA (26) Credo Mutwa: Time Unraveller by Ruth Simbao

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Nick Wood

Interesting article (available here with permission from the author) on the art and SF vision of umZulu healer and visionary Credo Mutwa. Credo Mutwa: Time Unraveller (2.5MB)Download

SF in SA (25): Academia and the Advance of African SF (August 2015)

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Nick Wood

African SF used to be pretty thin on the ground, although this may be partly down to narrow Western definitions of what exactly SF is - whether it was referring to science fiction or to the broader, more encompassing label of speculative fiction. Certainly, as Nnedi Okorafor (2014) put it in one of her online essays: “African science fiction is still alien.” Dr. Okorafor's (2014) essay mentions two important considerations: 1. Africans are (generally) absent from the creative process of global ...

Blog: May to August 2015

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Nick Wood

Some key news for the past few months: I am thrilled to have sold my book ‘Azanian Bridges’ to NewCon Press, due to be released in 2016. The book was discussed here, in an earlier blog-hop to support the ‘disability’ themed SF anthology ‘Accessing The Future’. Talking about ‘Accessing The Future’, this wonderful anthology has subsequently just been released and further info can be found at 'The Future Fire' here. Further to 'The Future Fire', I am very pleased my story ‘The Paragon of Knowledg...

Blog – January to April 2015

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Nick Wood

I’m sorry for the long delay in getting to this post, but a new job and poor health has meant getting down to anything, apart from managing work and pain, has been hard. Still, over Easter I’ve been adjusting to new pain meds which I hope will eventually help, along with Pain Clinic attendance at University College London Hospital. Mostly link news then. Firstly, for a neat and growing list of (mostly) complete South African SF (in its broadest sense), go to Cat Hellisen’s site. Secondly, kudo...

Blog – November/December 2014

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Nick Wood

Just a brief blog update really, as I head out to visit family in Cape Town again soon. Firstly, it's very exciting to see a new online African SF magazine launched, called 'Omenana', with a great mix of stories and non-fiction (interview and review article). The TOC for Issue 1 is: Editorial: Speculative Fiction in Nigeria: The Journey to Being: Mazi Nwonwu The 4:15 Appointment: Rafeeat Aliyu HostBods: Tendai Huchu Crocodile Ark: Oluwole Talabi A Winter in Lagos: Saratu Abiola Art: Mami...

SF in SA (23) African SF Rec List from Nine Worlds (August 2014)

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Nick Wood

African SF (9 Worlds) Panel Rec List Marguerite Abouet – Aya De Yopougon Ayodele Arigbabu - Lagos 2060 Lauren Beukes – Moxyland Lauren Beukes - Zoo City Dilman Dila - A Killing in the Sun D. O Fagunwa, 'Forest of a Thousand Daemons' (translated by Wole Soyinka) Louis Greenberg - Dark Windows Milumbe Haimbe - Ananiya the Revolutionist (not out yet) Lily Herne – Deadlands Trilogy Ivor Hartmann (ed.) - AfroSF (Vols 1 & 2) Tendai Huchu - The Hairdresser of Harare Charlie Human - Apoc...