The Arts-Muse Fair

By Paul Liam  Obinna Udenwe has published several award-winning works of fiction, namely Satans and Shaitans, Colours of Hatred, The Widow That Died With Flowers in Her Mouth, Men Are Fools, and Years of Shame . Many of these works have not only won local and international awards but have also aided in establishing Udenwe as one of Africa’s most prolific and important fiction writers of the current generation of African writers. Udenwe won the first edition of The Chinua Achebe Prize for Lite ature in 2021 with his novel Colours of Hatred, which was also shortlisted for the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature. His first novel, Satans and Shaitans, won the ANA Prize for Fiction in 2015. In 2020, his short stories also won a Prairie Schooner—Glenna Luschei Prize. Men Are Fools, a collection of short stories, was a finalist in the Prairie Schooner—Raz Shumaker Book Prize. His short story, “It Has to Do with Emelia,” was adapted into a film by South African film production company Bump ...

Nana Sule is always a writer to look out for. Her works are never anything short of astonishing—quiet storms that linger long after the last word. So the buzz around her debut collection is neither surprising nor misplaced. There are stories that knock gently, and there are those that slip through the cracks. The kind that feel like memories you’re not entirely sure belong to you. Not So Terrible People is of the latter category. A haunting, elegant collection echoing the eerie lullabies of childhood myths, quiet hauntings, and the many things that live just beneath the skin of ordinary life. Nana Sule—writer, journalist, and communications strategist—is no stranger to liminal spaces.  Nana crafts stories that feel familiar yet are imbued with the unexpected.  Her works have been published in Agbowo, Isele, and Arts-Muse Fair. She was the first runner-up for the 2022 Alitfest Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the 2023 Sevhage Prize for Fiction for her short story, Owan...

(for the sixteen innocent Hausa hunters lynched & mobbed at Uromi, Edo State, Nigeria) “The vigilantes started beating us as we were stepping out of the vehicle. After gathering us in one place, the locals joined in and continued the assault. Eventually, the vigilantes stepped back and allowed the locals to beat us while they stood idle, watching. Realising that we would likely be killed, some of us made a run for our lives—I was one of them. While fleeing, I encountered kind-hearted Hausa people, who gave me some money, which I used to reach the Hausa community leader here.”   —Daily Trust, March 29, 2025 & the hour is upon us again— all sixteen bodies kissed the violence of the  flames, & the wind carries the scent of burning  names. The smoke is still spiralling in the sky,  carrying the messages of its victims, writing their  elegy in soot, in silence, in sorrow. Somewhere,  I imagine angels are singing the Angelus, but  the...

A distinguished scholar, author, poet, researcher, literary critic, essayist and specialist in Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Professor Mabel Itohanosa Evwierhoma almost needs no introduction but her remarkable body of works has always spoken for her. Her immense contributions to Gender Studies in Africa especially in the area of feminist aesthetics and women centred approaches to drama and society, leading to such publications as Nigerian Feminist Theatre: Essays on Female Axes in Contemporary Nigerian Drama (1998), Issues On Gender, Drama and Cultural Studies (2002), Essays and Concepts on Society and Culture (2004)  and with GbemisolaAdeoti, After the Nobel Prize: Reflections on African Literature, Governance and Development (2006),  have made her a household name in any discourse on African Literature. Two of her poetic offerings are Out of Hiding and A Song As I Am.  In chapter One titled “Female Creativity and Woman-centred Ideologies: An Overview”, Evwierhoma’s...