Links of the week December 6 2021 (49)

This has been a great year for African writing," announced Damon Galgut, accepting the Booker prize earlier this month for his multilayered novel, The Promise, which tells the story of an Afrikaner family amid the political and social upheaval that followed the end of apartheid. "I'd like to accept this on behalf of all the stories told and untold, the writers heard and unheard from the remarkable continent that I come from."

Flash forward to last winter, as I walked to the building where my daughter has choir practice. I wore a thick parka, but I felt my phone vibrate to announce a new email. Once inside the vestibule, I warmed my hands and checked my email to find a message from the agent who'd asked to read my latest novel. "There is really so much to admire in this manuscript," the email began. I stopped reading and put the phone back in my coat pocket. Then marched onward to find my daughter. Already, I knew: rejection. I knew all the words that would come. I'd heard them all before.