The African Writers Trust hosted a mentoring and training workshop moderated by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey alongside Demere Kitunga and Catherine Mark. The workshop was hosted in November 2018.
The African Writers Trust is an organisation founded to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote the sharing of skills and other resources. Some of the activities of the organisation founded in 2009 by Goretti Kyomuhendo include hosting events like the Uganda International Writers Conference (in 2005 and in 2017) and workshops to teach writers and those in the profession.
The newest fellowship was hosted in the Ugandan capital this past November with a workshop to develop and chart learning experiences, and strengthen on-going projects. It would be conducted by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey alongside two other facilitators Demere Kitunga and Catherine Mark.
Ellah Wakatama Allfrey is the founding Publishing Director of The Indigo Press. She served on the judging panel of the 2017 Dublin International Literary Award and the Man Booker Prize 2015. Demere Kitunga is an editor, publisher, mentor, translator and practitioner of transformative literacy through storytelling. Catherine Mark writes poetry, short stories, and prose. Her poem, The Change, is published in the 2017 University of Chester anthology, Crossings Over (2017). Her micro-fictions, The Killing and Uncle Blessing, were published by Common word in the anthology, Elevator Fiction in 2016.
Those who would be in the program were;
- Hiwot Abebe (Ethiopia).
- Fatma Abdalatif (Sudan).
- Lubnah Abduhalim Said (Kenya).
- Regina Asinde (Uganda).
- Habte Beyene (Ethiopia).
- Sophie Nuwagira Bamwoyeraki (Uganda).
- Taddeo Bwambale (Uganda).
- Lubacha Deus (Tanzania).
- Mugumya Amooti (Rwanda).
- Lucky Grace Isingizwe (Rwanda).
- Paul Kisakye (Uganda).
- Danson Sylvester Kahyana (Uganda).
- Kingwa Kamencu (Kenya).
- David L. Lukudu (South Sudan).
- Emmanuel Monychol (South Sudan).
- Elias Mutani (Tanzania).
- Abdulrahman Abu Amirah Ndegwa (Kenya).
- Achiro Patricia Olwoch (Uganda).
At the end of the workshop, they were invited to make an application for seed funding. The winning manuscript (project) will receive €4,000, which they will use to produce a model publication that adheres to international publishing standards.
The images used in this blog are courtesy of the African Writers Trust.
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