Malthouse Press Nigeria

A whisper of forgotten dreams, hovering gently in the shadows of morning reality.

"Why shouldn’t literature provoke? It always has." Salman Rushdie

Six books have been shortlisted for the £30k Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2026 prize 👇 ebx.sh/5AJnKk

Book Digest: Abdulkareem Baba-Aminu, Nthikeng Mohlele, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, Pascal Boroto #NewBooks #Fiction #Poetry #Nonfiction @KareemReal writingafrica.com/book-digest-ab…

Johannesburg Institute Announces April 2026 Fellows #WritingFellowships #SouthAfrica #NoDNAJustRSA @JIAS_UJ writingafrica.com/johannesburg-i…

We love this #BookCover 'New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent is a remarkable compendium of literary expression by more than 200 writers from countries around the globe.' #MalthousePressNigeria #Anthology #Books

“It’s generally relatively rare for African publishers to exhibit at European book fairs for reasons of cost as well as the difficulty in securing visas to travel,” Kitchen added. dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0…

Source / the-tls.com

Do librarians dream of library card sheep? 📚🌙

ICYMI: The UK government has today published a Copyright and Artificial Intelligence report outlining that it is moving away from the proposed copyright exception for AI training, widely rejected by the creative industries. Read more 👇 ebx.sh/z7NBVd

In the 16th century, the Venetian lawyer Odorico Pillone owned an extensive library, amassed on his family estate near Venice. In the 1580s, he decided to further enhance his collection by decorating sections of pages with various artistic illustrations, books at that time were often simply kept on shelves. The Italian graphic designer and painter Cesare Vecellio (1521–1601), a cousin of Titian, was chosen as the artist. In total, he illustrated 172 volumes. The themes of the illustrations were related to the content of the books themselves (which was convenient, as it made it easy to find a specific topic). According to Pillone, the painted pages transformed the library into a unique art gallery.

Last call for submissions! The submission portal for our "Woordeloos" Anthology, featuring 19 poems by Southern African women poets, closes Mar 31, 2026. 1/4

Lost Library Tuesday 📚 Tucked quietly inside the famous Rijksmuseum is a place most visitors walk past without knowing its magic: the Rijksmuseum Research Library in Amsterdam. It looks like something straight out of a dream, with spiral levels filled with books from floor to ceiling. 📚

Umberto Eco, who owned 50,000 books, had this to say about home libraries: "It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones. There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion. If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the 'medicine closet' and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That's why you should always have a nutrition choice! Those who buy only one book, read only that one and then get rid of it. They simply apply the consumer mentality to books, that is, they consider them a consumer product, a good. Those who love books know that a book is anything but a commodity."

“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.” Joan Didion

The submission deadline has been extended to 30 March 2026.

Book Digest: Echezonachukwu Nduka, Farai Mudzingwa, Kenya Jaye, Vanessa Riley #NewBooks #Fiction #Poetry @masobebooks writingafrica.com/book-digest-ec…

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most powerful philosophical images in history, described in his work The Republic. It tells the story of prisoners chained inside a dark cave since birth. They face a wall, unable to turn their heads. Behind them burns a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners, objects pass by casting shadows on the wall. These shadows are the only reality the prisoners know. To them, the shadows are truth. One prisoner is freed. At first, the light blinds him. The real world confuses him. But slowly, he begins to understand that what he once saw were only illusions. He sees real objects, then the outside world, and finally the sun the source of all light and truth. When he returns to the cave to free the others, they reject him. They prefer the familiar shadows to the painful truth. The allegory represents the journey from ignorance to knowledge, from illusion to truth. The cave is the world of appearances. The shadows are false beliefs. The ascent is education and awakening. And the sun symbolizes ultimate truth what Plato called the Good. It is a reminder: most people live seeing shadows, while truth requires struggle, doubt, and the courage to step into the light.

The UK government has today published a Copyright and Artificial Intelligence report outlining that it is moving away from the proposed copyright exception for AI training, widely rejected by the creative industries. Read more 👇 ebx.sh/CB0otQ