Born in Salisbury, Rhodesia, on 16 September 1966 to Zimbabwean novelist, journalist and publisher Pius Wakatama[9] and entrepreneur and Christian women's rights activist Winnie Wakatama (née Ndoro), Ellah Wakatama spent her formative years between Salisbury and the midwestern USA while her father studied at the University of Iowa. She returned to Rhodesia at the age of 10, attending Arundel School. Her return to America was prompted by her college education, which began at Goshen College, where she received a BA in Journalism, ending at Rutgers University, where she earned an MA from the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies.[citation needed]
She was named Brittle Paper's "African Literary Person of the Year 2019". an award recognizing individuals who work behind the scenes to hold up the African literary establishment.[16]
Selected articles and essaysedit
Review of Call It Dog by Marli Roode (The Guardian, 28 August 2013)[17]
"The great Chinua Achebe was the man who gave Africa a voice" (The Observer, 24 March 2013)[18]
"All Hail the African Renaissance" (The Telegraph, 9 September 2011)[19]
"The cultural battle gave us books and music of genius" (The Observer, 13 April 2013)[20]
"Writers need new ways of talking about Africa's past and present" (The Guardian, 4 June 2016)[11]
"The 10 best contemporary African books". The Observer, 26 August 2012.[25]
Quoted by Parselo Kantai, Nairobi, in "Publishing: Book ends and new beginnings", The Africa Report, 8 February 2012.
"No Violet: From the African Booker to the Booker longlist"[26](quote)
Interviewsedit
"Ellah Wakatama Allfrey OBE on Behind the Headlines", SW Radio Africa, 3 January 2011.[27]
"Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Granta in Nairobi, Kenya".[28]
Nyana Kakoma, "Ellah Wakatama Allfrey on how she became an editor and why editing should be professionalised", African Writers Trust, 30 June 2014.
"...Publishers themselves and Gate-Keepers need to me more creative." An Interview with Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Short Story Day Africa, 30 November 2016.
Collaborationsedit
African Writers Trust Literary Feast, Uganda, May 2012.[29]
Judge for Kwani? Manuscript Project[31] – literary prize for unpublished fiction by African writers.
"The Trans-Atlantic, the Diaspora, and Africa" participant.[32] – conference hosted by Oxford University Research Centre for the Humanities, to discuss the newest theoretical scholarship emerging from the interdisciplinary fields of USA-derived Diaspora Studies and British-derived Trans-Atlantic Studies, and how these fields have diverged and converged in relation to the idea of Africa.
Patron of Etisalat Prize for Literature[33] – pan-African prize celebrating first-time African writers of published books of fiction.
^Editorial Team (14 August 2019), "2019: Top 10 Literary Curators and Editors from Africa Right Now" Archived 11 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Witsprouts.
^Wood, Heloise (13 June 2019). "Ellah Wakatama Allfrey joins Canongate as editor-at-large | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^ ab"Our New Chairperson". The Caine Prize for African Writing. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^Edoro, Ainehi (4 June 2018). "There's a New Publisher in Town! | Indigo Press Promises Bold Ideas and Beautifully-crafted Stories". Brittle Paper. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^Farrington, Joshua (3 May 2013). "Allfrey to leave Granta | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^Page, Benedicte (20 July 2009). "Allfrey joins Granta Magazine | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^Bloomsbury.com. "Africa39". Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^"Ellah Wakatama Allfrey". The Royal Society of Literature | RSL Fellows.
^"Book Launch - Speech by Pius Wakatama - Weaver Press". weaverpresszimbabwe.com. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
^ abAguirre, Richard R., "A royal honor for Ellah Wakatama Allfrey", Goshen College website, 4 April 2011.
^ abWakatama Allfrey, Ellah (4 June 2016), "Ellah Wakatama Allfrey: writers need new ways of talking about Africa's past and present", The Guardian.
^"Zimbabwean writer to receive OBE from Queen", New Zimbabwe, 31 December 2010; via The Zimbabwe Situation. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
^"Myriad authors awarded at the Royal Society of Literature summer party", Myriad Editions, 2019.
^"RSL Elects 45 new Fellows and Honorary Fellows" Archived 28 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, The Royal Society of Literature, 25 June 2019.
^"Ellah Wakatama Allfrey is Brittle Paper’s African Literary Person of the Year 2019", Brittle Paper, 24 December 2019.
^Watakama Allfrey, Ellah (28 August 2013). "Call It Dog by Marli Roode – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
^Wakatama Allfrey, Ellah (24 March 2013)"The great Chinua Achebe was the man who gave Africa a voice" (Comment is free), The Observer.
^Watakama, Ellah (9 September 2011). "All Hail the African Renaissance: The Storymoja Hay Festival with the British Council in Nairobi". The Telegraph.
^Quoted in "Margaret Thatcher and her influence on women", The Observer, 13 April 2013.
^Busby, Margaret, ed. (2019). "Contents". New Daughters of Africa(PDF). Myriad Editions. p. x.
^Presented by Claire Armitstead and produced by Tim Maby, Guardian Books podcast: Political fiction, 5 April 2013.
^"SWRadioAfrica". Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
^"Ellah Allfrey, Deputy Editor of Granta, talks about Granta Best of Young British Novelists", Audible.co.uk, 4 April 2013. YouTube.
^"The 10 best contemporary African books. As chosen by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, deputy editor of Granta Magazine. From a reinterpreted Heart of Darkness to a barstool in Congo", The Observer, 26 August 2012.
^Quoted in "No Violet: From the African Booker to the Booker longlist", GOtv, 25 July 2013.
^Interview by Lance Guma on SW Radio Africa, Zimbabwe Archived 1 June 2011 at the UK Government Web Archive, broadcast 3 January 2011.
^Laing, Kojo (2011). Woman of the Aeroplanes. Oxford: Heinemann. p. 286. ISBN 9780435045722. OL 25213240M.
^Allfrey, Ellah Wakatama, "An Interview with Margaret Busby", Wasafiri, Volume 32, 2017, Issue 4, pp. 2–6.
External linksedit
Interview by Shalini Gidoomal: "Ellah Allfrey on what needs to change for more African writers to get a chance to sit at the table", YouTube, 28 October 2013.
NPR: Ellah Allfrey page, WNYC.
Charles Henry Rowell, "An Interview with Ellah Allfrey", Callaloo, Volume 36, Number 3, Summer 2013, pp. 753–57. 10.1353/cal.2013.0148
Chimamanda Adichie chats with Ellah Allfrey (video), Brittle Paper, 23 May 2013.