Ainehi Edoro
Ainehi Edoro (born December 11) is a Nigerian writer. She is the founder and publisher of the African literary blog Brittle Paper. She is currently an assistant professor of Global Black Literatures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[1] Her areas of research include 21st century fiction, literature in digital/social media, The Global Anglophone Novel, African Literature, Contemporary British Fiction, Novel Theory, Political Philosophy, and Digital Humanities.[2]
Ainehi Edoro | |
---|---|
Born | December 11 |
Nationality | Nigerian |
Alma mater | Duke University |
Genre | Fictional literature |
Education
While working on her doctorate from Duke University, Edoro founded Brittle Paper.[3] Until June 2018, she was assistant professor at Marquette University. Her interests are centered on fictional African literature.[1][4]
Career
Edoro founded Brittle Paper in 2010. Explaining how she came about the name with Jennifer Emelife, Edoro explained: "The brittleness of paper evokes the ephemeral nature of literary work and ideas within the digital space...Brittle Paper is about documenting the life of texts within the social media space."[5] According to her, the dissatisfaction in sharing her literary thoughts with only her academic community was what led her to blogging, however she stated that her objective was to "reinvent African fiction and literary culture".[6]
Edoro is a contributing writer to Africa Is A Country, which is a site of opinion, analysis, and new writing.[7]
Controversy
In April 2020, the deputy editor of Brittle Paper, Otosirieze Obi-Young, stopped working for the publication over an internal editorial dispute. Official statements are unclear and differ as to whether he quit or was fired.[8][9] The dispute revolved around potential edits to a story about Hadiza Isma El-Rufai, a novelist and wife of Kaduna state governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. Hadiza Isma El-Rufai had defended her son's threat to gang-rape a Twitter user during an argument on the social network, saying "Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. All is fair in love and war"[10] when alerted to her son Bello's comments, before later apologising.[11] The editor and deputy editor of Brittle Paper were not able to come to an agreement about edits to the "Brittle Paper" post, so the post was taken down, accompanied by a short statement. The next day, Obi-Young ignited a social media controversy with a public statement posted to his blog. The statement included unverified accusations against "Brittle Paper" and its editor,[12] and spawned conspiracy theories on Twitter. The editor of "Brittle Paper" responded to the controversy in a statement on April 15, 2020, in which she denied the accusations. Responding to Obi-Young's accusations of censorship and misogyny, the editor point to "Brittle Paper"'s ten-year track record of publishing similarly controversial stories, supporting women's issues, and standing against censorship.[13]
Publications
Achebe’s Evil Forest: Space, Violence, and Order in Things Fall Apart Journal of Postcolonial Enquiry [14]
How not to talk about African fiction
Awards and Honor
In 2018, she was listed on Okay Africa's "100 Women".[15]
She was listed as one of the 100 most influential Africans of 2016 by New African.
She was also listed as one of the five most influential Nigerian women in 2016 by the Guardian.[16]
In 2016, her writings were published in British newspaper The Guardian, where she observed discrimination in the perception of African writers by some stakeholders in the literary circle.[17]
In June 2018, she was the lead judge at GTBank's writing contest.[18] She is also the announcer of the African literary person of the year through Brittle Paper.[19]
References
- "Ainehi Edoro to Leave Marquette University for Dual Appointment at University of Wisconsin-Madison". Brittle Paper. June 4, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- "Contact Us". Brittle Paper. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
- "Happy Birthday to Ainehi Edoro, Founder and Editor of Brittle Paper". Brittle Paper. December 12, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- "AINEHI EDORO". Marquette University. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- Emilife, Jennifer (July 31, 2017). "Brittle Paper at 7-Interview with Founder, Ainehi Edoro". Praxis Magazine. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- Osofisan, Sola (February 1, 2015). "Interview with Ainehi Edoro, Founder of BrittlePaper.com". African Writer. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- "About Us". africasacountry.com. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
- https://brittlepaper.com/2020/04/statement-on-the-departure-of-brittle-papers-former-deputy-editor/
- https://otosirieze.com/statement-on-leaving-brittle-paper/
- https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/387581-outrage-as-el-rufais-son-threatens-to-gang-rape-twitter-users-mother.html
- https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/387730-hadiza-el-rufai-apologises-denounces-sons-pro-rape-tweet.html
- https://otosirieze.com/statement-on-leaving-brittle-paper/
- https://brittlepaper.com/2020/04/statement-on-the-departure-of-brittle-papers-former-deputy-editor/
- Edoro-Glines, Ainehi (April 2018). "Achebe's Evil Forest: Space, Violence, and Order in Things Fall Apart". The Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry. 5 (2): 176–192. doi:10.1017/pli.2017.55. ISSN 2052-2614.
- "Ainehi Edoro-Glines". OKAYAFRICA's 100 WOMEN. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
- Bilen-Onabanjo, Sinem (December 3, 2016). "Five most influential Nigerian women of 2016". Guardian. Lagos. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- Edoro, Ainehi (April 6, 2016). "How not to talk about African fiction". The Guardian. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- "Decade old story wins GTBank's Dusty Manuscript Contest". The Eagle Online. June 21, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- "Nigerian author named Literary Person of the Year". Pulse. March 28, 2018.