Head of Zeus launches Apollo Africa list, a new home for Heinemann African Writers Series titles

Head of Zeus has launched an Apollo Africa list, the new home for 100 Heinemann African Writers Series titles, in collaboration with Black Star Books and Pearson Education. 

Apollo Africa’s list features authors from 26 African countries and will once again make these titles available to readers. The first 14 titles, among them Ama Ata Aidoo’s No Sweetness Here, Bessie Head’s The Lovers and Buchi Emecheta’s The New Tribe, will be made available in October 2023, to coincide with Black History Month. Other titles on the list will include Waiting for the Rain by Charles Mungoshi, Burning Grass by Cyprian Ekwensi, Wings of Dust by Jamal Mahjoub and Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The Heinemann African Writers Series was launched in 1962 with the publication of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Cyprian Ekwensi’s Burning Grass and Kenneth Kaunda’s Zambia Shall be Free, with Achebe himself as an editorial advisor. The aim of the series was to make the work of African authors as available to as wide a readership as possible, both within Africa and across the world.

Under the stewardship of Aigboje Higo, James Currey, Henry Chakuva and Vicky Unwin, among others, they  continued to publish the best writing from across Africa until 2003.

Working alongside an editorial advisory board made up of literary agent Nelle Andrew, publishing consultant Nancy Adimora, author Noo Saro-Wiwa and cultural consultant Dean Ricketts, Apollo Africa will make all 100 titles available digitally by March 2024. Titles from the list will be selected for trade release from spring 2024 onwards and new writers from across the African continent and diaspora will be sought out to add their voices to the project.

Adimora from the editorial board said: "It’s hard to overstate the importance of the African Writers Series. In many ways, it is what led me to start my career in publishing, so working on this project feels like a full circle moment.

"As an editorial board, we’re committed to ensuring that these titles are thoughtfully repackaged and reintroduced to the broadest possible audience, and I’m particularly looking forward to helping the team identify and platform new writers and stories from across the African continent and diaspora." 

Nicolas Cheetham, m.d. at Head of Zeus, added: "Apollo Africa is an important digital resource, a trade showcase for the best African writing in beautiful print editions and an inspiration for readers and a new generation of writers. From a serendipitous conversation at Frankfurt, it has taken the best part of a decade to reach this moment and it wouldn’t have happened without James Woodhouse’s knowledge and diligence, and the many miles he has travelled in pursuit of contracts and writers."

Madeleine O’Shea, acting publishing director for fiction, commented: "Working on this list has been a real thrill. We have been having enlightening, exciting conversations with the board and the wider team here for quite some time and I’m so excited to now be sharing our project more widely."