A conversation about Africa and LGBTQ literature, gender, queerness, identity, feminism, and the new wave of writers breaking barriers across Africa.

The panel will feature a conversation about writers, Africa and queerness, gender, the body, homophobia, and sexual identity - themes found in the literature of a talented new generation of LGBTQ writers, many engaged in the Brittle Paper blog. (www.brittlepaper.com)

Time: 7-9 pm moderated discussion, 6 pm free open reception

Co-Moderators:
· Ainehi Edoro: Founder and Editor of Brittle Paper, the pioneering African literary blog; and Assistant Professor of Global Anglophone Literatures at the @University of Wisconsin-Madison;
· Anne-christine d'Adesky: journalist, author (The Pox Lover, a Lambda Literary Award 2018 finalist for lesbian memoir), filmmaker and activist.

In discussion with:
· Unoma Azuah, writer and editor, "Blessed Bodies: The Secret Lives of Nigerian Lesbian, Gay, Transgender Nigerians" anthology and "Mounting the Moon: Queer Nigerian Poems". Also English Instructor at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College.
· Arinze Ifeakandu, Caine Prize shortlisted writer of short story "God’s Children are Little Broken Things", and Editor-in-Chief of 14.
· Itiola Jones (I.S. Jones) I.S. Jones is a queer American / Nigerian poet and music journalist and the 2018 winner of the Brittle Paper Award in Poetry. She is a Graduate Fellow with The Watering Hole and holds fellowships from Callaloo, BOAAT Writer's Retreat, and Brooklyn Poets. She hosts a month-long workshop every April called The Singing Bullet and is a Book Editor with Indolent Books, Editor at Voicemail Poems, and freelance contributor to other publications. She is an MFA candidate in Poetry at UW-Madison as well as the first Kemper K. Knapp University Fellowship recipient.