The 12 writers selected for the first Short Story Day Africa Inkubator project have been announced!
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The 12 writers selected for the first Short Story Day Africa Inkubator project have been announced! 〰️
Inkubator Africa/UK is an intensive, three-month, online seminar designed by Short Story Day Africa and Laxfield Literary Associates, for writers to develop, grow and hone their fiction writing and self-editing skills, as well as create an environment for cultural exchange and dialogue between writers from different backgrounds. It is a place for writers to support writers: to learn, to teach, and to mentor each other and create new, ongoing support networks.
SSDA Inkubator Africa/UK is supported by the British Council Cultural Exchange programme, which supports cultural organisations, festivals, artists and creatives between the countries of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and the United Kingdom (UK) to create art, build networks, collaborate and develop markets and share artists’ work with audiences.
The 12 participants, selected from 125 applicants, will be mentored through an extensive curriculum that covers writing, editing, preparing work for submission, as well as how to approach agents and publishers. Inkubator consists of six online workshops and a moderated online forum, with professional facilitation from some of Africa’s most renowned writers and editors: Tochukwu Okafor, Karen Jennings, TJ Benson, Doreen Baingana, Olumide Popoola and Emma Shercliff.
Meet the Facilitators — Short Story Day Africa
The writers will work in pairs to produce short stories that will be edited for publication and the resulting anthology will be published as an e-book.
SSDA Executive Editor, Rachel Zadok, and UK Director of SSDA, Lizzy Attree, say:
We received 125 applications from across Anglophone Africa and the UK. Narrowing them down to just 12 was incredibly difficult, as there were many wonderful stories. These 12 writers stood out for us. There is something special in each of their voices, a unique energy and spark. We’re really looking forward to working with them over the next months to see what they produce.
To the writers who didn’t make it: we encourage you to keep writing, and keep submitting.
We’d like to express our thanks to all the incredible people who have donated to Short Story Day Africa or bought copies of our anthologies, especially our most recent publication Disruption, and our publishing partner Catalyst Press.
Congratulations to the twelve writers!
The 2022 Short Story Day Africa Inkubator writers are:
1. Aba Asibon – Ghana
2. Kabubu Mutua – Kenya
3. Moso – Lesotho
4. Doreen Anyango – Uganda
5. Zanta Nkumane – eSwatini
6. Khumbo Mhone – Malawi
7. Nicholas A Dawn – South Africa
8. Emily Pensulo – Zambia
9. Josephine Sokan – Nigeria/UK
10. Sola Njoku – Nigeria/UK
11. Yovanka Paquete Perdigao – Guinea Bissau/Republic of Ireland
12. Salma Abdilatif Yusuf – Kenya/UK
About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We build connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. Last year we reached over 80 million people directly and 791 million people overall including online, broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body. We receive a 15 per cent core funding grant from the UK government. www.britishcouncil.org