The Writivism Prizes

The joint shortlist for the 2016 Writivism Prizes for Short Fiction, Poetry in Translation and Non Fiction have just been announced. Eleven writers from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and  Ivory Coast are on the shortlist. Below we tell you more about them.

Short Story Prize 

Gloria Mwaniga Minage is a high school teacher in Baringo where she also runs a children’s reading club. She is also a freelance writer of literary pieces for The Saturday Nation and The East African newspapers as well as coordinator of Amka, a literary workshop that meets monthly at the Goethe Institut in Nairobi to critique works by budding female writers in Kenya.

Acan Innocent Immaculate is a 20-year old Ugandan pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery. Writing has always been her first love and she looks forward to a literary atmosphere where African stories will break the mould even more than they do now.

Laure Gnagbé Blédou  is passionate, a woman, lover, mother, daughter, sister, cousin, friend, Africa-ddict, thirty-something, impatient, Ivorian, French, human, reader, speaker, writer, demanding, citizen, vegetarian, traveller, road-trip fan, learner, book-lover, bridge-lover, chocolate-lover, music enthusiast, sharer, feminist, old-school, new-school, journalist.

Aito Osemegbe Joseph works as a Sales Professional during the day and at dusk, writes horror stories and psychological thrillers. His short stories have appeared in ‘Brittle Paper’ and ‘Kalahari review’. He is set to publish a collection of short stories and is currently working on his debut novel.

Abu Amirah finds pleasure in the written word because of the ability to lose himself in an infectious world filled with characters begging to come to life, metaphors, muse and madness; and amid all this, the power to give the reader permission to laugh, cry, love and hate!

Poetry in Translation Prize

Redscar McOdindo K’Oyuga is a Kenyan poet and writer who experiments with words and sound in his subterranean laboratory. Writing in Swahili and English, his work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in African American Review, SAND Journal (Berlin), Clarion Magazine (Boston), Mandala Journal (Georgia), Jalada, Brittle Paper, Kwani?’s Multiverse: Kenyan Poetry in English Since 2003, Lawino Magazine, EXPOUND, Praxis Magazine, Boda Boda Anthem and Other Poems: A Kampala Poetry Anthology, Best New African Poets 2015 Anthology, and elsewhere. He also contributes to the Swahili poetry pages of Taifa Leo & Taifa Jumapili.

Gbenga Adesina lives and writes in Nigeria. His poetry, essays and reviews have been featured or are forthcoming in Harriet’s Blog for the Poetry Foundation and in Jalada, Premium Times, Open Society Foundation blog, Brittle Paper, Africanwriter.com, One Throne, Vinyl, Prairie Schooner, Soar Africa (OSIWA anthology of new African poems) and others. In 2015, he was an Open Society Foundation Resident Poet on Goree Island, off the coast of Senegal. His first chapbook, Painter of Water, was published by APBF in the spring of 2016. He was joint-winner of the 2015 Brunel University Prize for African Poetry.

Born in 1993, Nebeolisa Okwudili is a Nigerian poet. His work has appeared or will appear in Salamander, Ambit Magazine, Word Riot and else where. His manuscript ‘country’ was a finalist for the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets.

Non Fiction Prize 

Ama Asantewa Diaka is an editor, writer, designer, contemplating geek and a reader. Once a networking and systems administrator, Ama is the creative director of Yobbings & Alikoto Clothing and programs director of Love Rocks Organization.She usually addresses politics, feminity, societal issues, relationships etc with her creative work.

S.Y Tetteh graduated from Stanford University where she studied Anthropology. She was born in London, but presently resides in Ghana where her family is from. She has worked a lot in documentary film and other creative arts.

Kofi Konadu Berko, 19, is a student of the University of Ghana and lives in Accra.

Do not miss the 2016 Writivism Festival in Kampala, Uganda from August 22 – 28.