Our panel will explore recent developments in writing and publishing new fiction from within Africa, particularly in West and East Africa. It will ask if the ‘renaissance in African writing’ is real or whether it remains a perception of the West, encouraged by Western activity such as The Caine Prize for African writing, whose winner is announced annually in Oxford. The panel will offer reader, writer and publisher perspectives – so come ready with your questions for them all.

Muthoni Garland, based in Nairobi, writes fiction for adults and children and has been shortlisted for the Caine Prize. Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a writer, editor, socio-cultural commentator, broadcaster and performance poet. A 2007 recipient of Ghana’s national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy, he is the author of the acclaimed hybrid literary novel, Tail of the Blue Bird. Geoff Ryman, a Canadian citizen, teaches creative writing in Nigeria and at the University of Manchester. Emma Dawson Varughese has edited anthologies of short stories from Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Malaysia. A short story in the Ugandan Collection, Butterfly Dreams by Beatrice Lamwaka, was shortlisted for the 2011 Caine Prize.