At the Los Angeles Review of Books Anna Clark writes on Exploding the Canon: On the African Writers Series.
I'm a big fan of the original AWS; several of the books from it are under review at the complete review (and the reason that a lot more aren't is that I basically grew up with the orange volumes from this series, and read dozens of them long before I even started this site). (See also the review of James Currey's vital AWS-history, Africa Writes Back, which Clark also mentions.)
I'm not quite as sanguine about the latest attempt to resuscitate the series, in Penguin Classics guise -- but maybe there really is some hope for it if, indeed:
I'm a big fan of the original AWS; several of the books from it are under review at the complete review (and the reason that a lot more aren't is that I basically grew up with the orange volumes from this series, and read dozens of them long before I even started this site). (See also the review of James Currey's vital AWS-history, Africa Writes Back, which Clark also mentions.)
I'm not quite as sanguine about the latest attempt to resuscitate the series, in Penguin Classics guise -- but maybe there really is some hope for it if, indeed:
The new AWS will be ongoing, rather than finite. Siciliano "aims to make the series as diverse as possible" while ensuring that selections are driven by editorial quality. He's also interested in titles in translation and, if necessary, would consider commissioning new translations that would put the novels "in the best possible light."So far, they've been taking it slowly and conservatively ..... But you'll find copies of volumes from the original series in lots of good second-hand bookshops, and I'd urge you to reach for those orange paperbacks if and when you can.