The recipients of the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) West African Writers Residency 2023 were announced in Accra, Ghana on Friday, September 8, 2023.
The Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) is a private library, archive, writing residency, and museum dedicated to the work of African and Diaspora writers from the late 19th century to the present day. Founded by Sylvia Arthur in 2023, it is an important space for building the writing community in Ghana and the wider African continent.
As mentioned earlier, one of the important roles is the writing residency which allows writers to have a space to do their work for a set period. Earlier in the year, the library made a callout for the second of its West African Writers Residency programme for writers who are citizens of any one of 16 West African countries. In the brief, they said that they were looking for “writers who are pushing the boundaries of storytelling, and working in areas that are underrepresented in contemporary African literature like Africanfuturism, nature writing, folktales/folklore, narrative nonfiction, literary criticism et al.”
Those who will take part in the residency were announced on Friday and they are;
- Roseline Mgbodichinma (Nigeria)
- Kwame Brenya (Ghana)
- Tahnia Barrie (Sierra Leone)
- Ojo Taiye (Nigeria)
- Ese Emmanuel (Nigeria)
- Chris Parker Edzordzi Sefogah aka Megborna (Ghana)
- Bachir Tamsir Niane (Senegal)
- Zenas Ubere (Nigeria)
These writers will now join a residency that will allow them to work on a long-form project in uninterrupted time and space to focus on their work in a supportive and well-resourced African-centred literature environment with other writers from across the region. They will now be in residence at LOATAD in Accra, Ghana, for a period of one month between August 2023 and December 2023 (except October 2023).
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