Michael McColly's new memoir, The After-Death Room, began when AIDS activists begged him to help battle the spread of the virus in Africa. But unlike most people, McColly had a dramatic, immediate answer to these pleas:"So I sold my belongings, took a leave of absence from my teaching position, and headed to Asia and back to Africa to chronicle the remarkable work of AIDS activists and their work, focusing primarily on HIV positive activists."
As his new book comes out from Soft Skull Press, I spent some time exploring McColly's favorite African writing resources--helping fledgling writers follow his path as part of my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions.
In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.
Jason Boog:
Your book deals with some heavy social problems in Africa--the AIDS crisis, misguided drug companies, and crushing poverty. If someone wants to learn more about the social situation in contemporary Senegal and the African continent, what are the best journalistic and informational resources on the web?
Michael McColly:
The South African paper, Mail and Guardian, is quite good on South Africa and African politics... The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) website is good for HIV releated issues, as is the World Health Organization and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
In journalism, I trust those who are from Africa rather than those journalists who travel there. But Ryszard Kapuscinski, a Polish writer and journalist, is quite good.
Transition, a literary journal from the African Studies program at Harvard, highlights some excellent writing on Africa and the diaspora. But they're struggling now.
In addition, Rob Nixon from South Africa is also a very clear-thinking and sensitive writer on issues of political and environmental issues.
» Five Easy Questions: Michael McColly, Part Four from ThePublishingSpot
Michael McColly's new memoir, The After-Death Room, began when AIDS activists begged him to help battle the spread of the virus in Africa. But unlike most people, McColly had a dramatic, immediate answer to these pleas:"So I sold my... [Read More]
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