African genre fiction brings together three alums on NPR program
If you were paying attention to last week’s episode of To the Best of Our Knowledge from Wisconsin Public Radio, you may have noticed that it was heavily influenced by Goshen College graduates.
The weekly themed public radio program focused on “African Genre Fiction” and featured interviews with Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, a 1988 graduate and editor of the anthology “Africa39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara” (Bloomsbury, 2014), and Sofia Samatar, a 1994 graduate whose novel, “A Stranger in Olondria” (Small Beer Press, 2013), swept this year’s fantasy fiction awards.
Charles Monroe-Kane, a 1991 Goshen College graduate who produced and edited the program, chose the guests for the show. Monroe-Kane and Samatar already knew each other from college – Samatar is married to Monroe-Kane’s former roommate – and they have stayed in touch.
“She and I were friends in Goshen and our kids played together, so it was exciting to have her on,” he said. “Sofia was recently living in Madison, getting her Ph.D., and I had a chance to read her book then. It blew me away.”
As for Allfrey, Monroe-Kane was completely surprised to find out she was also a GC alumna.
“I didn’t know she went to GC at all,” he said. “I remember the day before the interview seeing a photo of her online and thinking ‘do I know her?’ So I searched her on Facebook and we have a dozen friends in common – all friends from Goshen College. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.”
To the Best of Our Knowledge is heard on more than 250 NPR stations around the country. The episode can be heard online at www.ttbook.org/book/african-genre-fiction.
Ellah Wakatama Allfrey ’88 is a Zimbabwe-born editor and literary critic. She is the former deputy editor of Granta (2009–13) and former senior editor at Jonathan Cape, Random House. She currently works as a book critic, editor and broadcaster. A regular contributor to NPR, her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer and the Telegraph. Her broadcasting includes a series of author interviews for Granta.com and she contributes regularly to NPR’s All Things Considered and BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Review.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, Allfrey was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 2011 for services to the publishing industry. She edited the anthology “Africa39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara” (2014), showcasing the writers in the Africa39 initiative. She has been announced as a judge of the Man Booker Prize for 2015.
Sofia Samatar ’94 is a Somali American educator, poet and writer. She is an assistant professor of English at the California State University Channel Islands, and serves as a nonfiction and poetry editor for Interfictions: A Journal of Interstitial Arts.
In 2014, Samatar won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for her book “A Stranger in Olondria” (Small Beer Press). She was also presented the World Fantasy Award for her work. In addition, Samatar received the 2014 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She won the Crawford Award and was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Samatar’s yet-to-be-published “Monster Portraits” is also a finalist for the Calvino Prize.
Charles Monroe-Kane ’91 is a senior producer at Wisconsin Public Radio, and also the host of Director’s Cut, a weekly Wisconsin Public Television show that features independent films. An interviewer, reporter, sound editor and producer for some 14 years, his five-hour series “Boots on the Ground: Stories from the War in Iraq” won several awards. Monroe-Kane won the Peabody Award in 2006 for his body of work at To the Best of Our Knowledge. He recently completed a memoir and is looking for a publisher. Listen to him being interviewed by Ira Glass on This American Life.