Proposing the novel concept of the "literary NGO," this study combines interviews with contemporary East African writers with an analysis of their professional activities and the cultural funding sector to make an original contribution to African literary criticism and cultural studies.

Autorentext

Doreen Strauhs is a professional with The German National Academic Foundation, Germany's largest organization sponsoring highly gifted students of outstanding academic achievements. She has been published with Wasafiri, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, and Kunapipi. From 2006 to 2012, she worked in the East African NGO-sector and conducted research in Kenya, Uganda, and the USA on the contemporary generation of East African writers.

Zusammenfassung
Proposing the novel concept of the "literary NGO," this study combines interviews with contemporary East African writers with an analysis of their professional activities and the cultural funding sector to make an original contribution to African literary criticism and cultural studies.

Inhalt
Introduction. Kenya and Uganda in the Limelight: Setting the Stage 1. "The landscape had not its like in all the world": (East) African Anglophone Writing from the 1940s to the Late 1990s 2. African Literary NGOs (LINGOs): A Model for African Literary Criticism and Cultural Politics 3. The African Literary Revolution on Our Doorstep?: African LINGOs Past and Present 4. Survival of the Fittest: African LINGOs - An Enduring Phenomenon? 5. "Tongues on Fire": The Politics of Being an African Writer in an African LINGO in the 21st Century 6. "Words that reshape a country" and Literary Canons?: Agency and Narrative 7. Rewriting African Identity, Self, and Place: Civil War and HIV/AIDS in Fiction 8. Some Conclusions and Future Scenarios for the African LINGO in the 21st Century