Literary Prizes, Writers' Organisations and Canon Formation in Africa

Abstract

This article explores the circulation of value in the literary market by investigating the interlinkages between African writers' organisations and international literary award institutions. It focuses on selected writers' organisations such as FEMRITE, Kwani?, Storymoja, Farafina, and Writivism, investigating how they participate in placing contemporary African literature in the global literary marketplace especially through their creative writing programmes. The article pays attention to the intersection between literary awards and creative writing programmes on the continent in mediating the process of literary production. I attempt to place the literary text within the mechanisms of its production by examining the various structures that frame the creative writing programmes on the continent. The article borrows from John Guillory's (1993 Guillory, J. 1993. Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.|[CrossRef...