by Wole Soyinka
Eileen Almeida Barbosa was born in Senegal to a Cape Verdean mother and a father from Guinea Bissau. She was raised and now lives in Cape Verde. In 2005 she won the inaugural National Pantera Revelation Prize for Short Stories and the Pantera Revelation Prize for Poetry. Her story collection, Eileenístico, was published in 2007. A translator and communications specialist, Barbosa blogs at soncent.blogspot.com. She works as an advisor to the Prime Minister and is currently writing her second collection of short stories.
A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. His first story collection, From Caves of Rotten Teeth, was published in Nigeria in 2005. His second collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was picked by NPR as a best book of 2013. He is the winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short fiction has been published in journals including AGNI, Guernica and Kwani?. He lives in Lagos.
Jackee Budesta Batanda was born in Uganda. She is a short story writer and independent journalist. The Africa regional winner of the 2003 Commonwealth Short Story Competition, her stories have been performed on the BBC World Service, BBC3 and radio stations throughout the Commonwealth as well as appearing in various international anthologies. She has written for publications including the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Mail & Guardian. She was the recipient of a 2010 Uganda Young Achievers Award and named by The Times (London) in 2012 as one of twenty women shaping the future of Africa. She is currently at work on a novel.
Recaredo Silebo Boturu is a poet, playwright, storyteller and the co-founder and director of Companía Teatral Bocamandja. Born in Bareso, on the island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea, his writings explore themes of social change and seek to re-establish oral traditions. He is among the most important advocates of theatre in his country and his works are performed in every region of the country, and have earned him considerable recognition. He is the author of two books Luz en la noche, Poesía y Teatro (Light in the Darkness: poems and plays) (2010) and Crónicas de memorias anuladas, poesía y teatro (Chronicles of obliterated memories: poems and plays) (2014) published by Editorial Verbum. His writings have been published in a number of anthologies and magazines, including Caminos y veredas: narrativas de Guinea ecuatorial (UNAM), La Palabra y la Memoria: Guinea 25 anos después and the Afro-Hispanic Review. Translations of his work in English have appeared in Bengal Lights, Molossus, and World Literature Today. He has participated in conferences and spoken at universities in Spain, Columbia and the USA.
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is a Ghanaian-American writer living in New York. Her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in publications including African Writing, Ebony magazine, the Village Voice, NBC’s The Grio and in the anthology Women’s Work. Publishers Weekly hailed her novel Powder Necklace, published in 2010, as ‘a winning debut’. Most recently, she founded the blog People Who Write.
Shadreck Chikoti is a Malawian writer, public speaker and social activist. His awards include the 2013 Peer Gynt Literary Award for his forthcoming futuristic novel, Azotus, the Kingdom. His short story ‘Child of the Hyena’ was published in To See the Mountain, the 2011 Caine Prize Anthology. He is vice president of the Malawi Writers Union and Director of Pan African Publishers Ltd and recently founded the Story Club Malawi, a social gathering for artists.
Edwige-Renée Dro worked as a marketing assistant and community journalist in the UK before moving back to Cote d’Ivoire, where she was born. Her stories have been published in Prima magazine and africanwriter.com. She is currently completing work on her first novel and is the founder of Abidjan Lit, an African fiction book group.
Tope Folarin was born in the United States to Nigerian parents. He made his fiction debut in Transition with ‘Miracle’ in 2012, for which he was awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2013. His work has also appeared in Africa Report and the Virginia Quarterly Review. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and Oxford University, where he earned two Master’s degrees as a Rhodes Scholar. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Institute for Policy Studies and Callaloo and serves on the board of the Hurston/Wright Foundation. He lives in Washington DC and is currently at work on his first novel.
Clifton Gachagua is a Kenyan writer. He is the recipient of the 2013 inaugural Sillerman Prize for African Poetry for his debut collection The Madman at Kilifi, which was subsequently published in 2014 by the University of Nebraska Press. In 2013 he was longlisted for the Kwani? Manuscript Project for his novel Zephyrion. His work has appeared in publications including Saraba, Storymoja and Kwani? and the science fiction anthology AfroSF. He is currently an editor at Kawani Trust and Jalada and television scriptwriter and blogs at thedrumsofshostakovich.com.
Stanley Gazemba is a Kenyan journalist and the author of three novels: The Stone Hills of Maragoli, Khama and Callused Hands, and eight children’s books. A recipient of the Jomo Kenyatta Prize, his articles and stories have appeared in publications including ‘A’ is for Ancestors, the Caine Prize Anthology, the East African and the New York Times. In 2013 his novel Ghettoboy was shortlisted for the Kwani? Manuscript Project and his new book, Callused Hands, has been published by Nsemia Publishers. He works as the East Africa Editor for Music in Africa.
Mehul Gohil is a writer born and living in Nairobi, Kenya. He was the winner of the 2010 Kwani? ‘The Kenya I Live In’ short story prize. His fiction has been published in Kwani? and on several online platforms including Short Story Day Africa. His journalism has appeared in publications including the Sahan Journal and chessbase.com. He is a founding member of the literary collective Jalada.
Hawa Jande Golakai was born in Germany to Liberian parents. She was raised in Liberia until the start of civil war in 1990, and has since lived in several other African countries including Ghana, Togo and Zimbabwe. Her debut novel, The Lazarus Effect, was shortlisted for the 2011 Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize and longlisted for the Wole Soyinka Prize. She currently lives and works in Monrovia, Liberia, as a medical immunologist and is completing her second novel, a sequel.
Shafinaaz Hassim is a South African writer and sociologist. She is the author of several books including Daughters are Diamonds: Honour, Shame & Seclusion – A South African Perspective and Memoirs for Kimya and the novel, SoPhia. SoPhia has been converted into performance theatre and staged at the State Theatre during August 2014 prior to its national tour. She is the editor of the Belly of Fire anthologies for social change. Her new anthology, Soul Seeds for Shade & Solitude has just been launched. A social commentator and contributor to the Mail & Guardian, her work has been shortlisted for the K. Sello Duiker Award and the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize for Creative Writing.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim was born in Jos, Nigeria. His debut short story collection The Whispering Trees was published in Nigeria in 2012 and was longlisted in 2014 for the inaugural Etisalat Prize for Literature; the title story was shortlisted for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing. In 2007 he was the winner of the BBC African Performance Prize and was named the 2013 Gabriel García Márquez Fellow. He lives in Abuja, Nigeria where he works as an arts editor for a national newspaper.
Stanley Onjezani Kenani was born in Malawi and currently lives in Switzerland. He has twice been shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing, in 2008 and 2012. He is the author of the story collection For Honour and Other Stories and is currently working on his first novel.
Ndinda Kioko is a Kenyan writer and filmmaker whose short fiction has appeared in several literary magazines and anthologies. Her story Death at the End of the Bougainvillea is published by Jalada Africa. Other works appear in publications including Fresh Paint – Literary Vignettes by Kenyan Women. She is currently working on her debut novel and producing a fifty-two episode television series for M-Net.
Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is the award-winnin
g author of the novels The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, How to Read the Air and, most recently, All Our Names, published in 2014. His journalism and fiction appears in publications including Harper’s, Granta and the New Yorker. He has been named as one of ‘5 Under 35’ by the National Book Foundation and was amongst ‘20 Under 40’ writers to watch by the New Yorker. The recipient of numerous awards including the Guardian First Book Award and a 2012 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, he currently lives in New York City.
Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa, Somaliland and moved to England with her family in 1986. Her first novel, Black Mamba Boy, was longlisted for the Orange Prize, shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, John Llewelyn Rhys award, Dylan Thomas Prize, PEN Open Book Award and won the Betty Trask Prize. The Orchard of Lost Souls won a Somerset Maugham Prize in 2014. Her work has been published in 16 languages. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, Granta, Virginia Quarterly Review and the Independent. She lives in London and is currently working on her third novel.
Nthikeng Mohlele was born in 1977 and grew up in Limpopo and Tembisa township, South Africa. A graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, he is the author of the novels The Scent of Bliss and Small Things. Two new novels, Rusty Bell and Pleasure, will be published in October 2014 and October 2015 respectively.
Linda Musita is a Kenyan writer, editor and lawyer. She is a literary agent at Lelsleigh Inc in Nairobi, and a subeditor and legal officer at the Star newspaper. Her fiction has been published on the Storymoja publishers’ blog and the Daily Nation. A Storymoja Hay Festival 2012/13 fellow, she is currently working on her first novella.
Richard Ali A Mutu writes in Lingala and is considered one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s most promising writers. The winner of the 2009 November Mark Twain Prize, he published his first book Le cauchemardesque de Tabu in 2011 when he was just twenty-three, and the second, a novel written in Lingala, Ebamba, Kinshase Makambo by Mabiki editions. He is the founder of the Young Writers Association of Congo (AJECO). He has also written poetry, essays, monologues and theatre performance pieces.
Sifiso Mzobe was born in Durban, South Africa. His debut novel, Young Blood, was published by Kwela Books and went on to be awarded the 2011 Herman Charles Bosman Award, the 2011 Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the 2011 South African Literary Award and the 2012 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature. He currently works as a freelance journalist and is writing his second novel.
Glaydah Namukasa is a Ugandan midwife and writer, and is currently chairperson of the Uganda Women Writers’ Association, Femrite. Her short stories are published in anthologies in Uganda, South Africa, the UK, the US and Sweden. She is the author of one novel, The Deadly Ambition. Her young adult novella Voice of a Dream, was awarded the Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa in 2006. She is the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center fellowship and in 2008 was awarded the title of Honorary Fellow by the International Writers Program at the University of Iowa. She is currently completing her first novel.
Ondjaki was born in Luanda, Angola. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the 2008 Grande Prémio de Conto Camilo Castelo Branco awarded by the Portuguese Writers’ Association and the Prémio Jabuti. His novel Os Transparentes was awarded the Saramago Prize in 2013. He has lived in Lisbon and New York and is currently at work on various cinema and film projects and now lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Okwiri Oduor was born in Nairobi. She is a 2014 MacDowell Colony fellow. She is currently at work on her debut novel. Her story, ‘My Father’s Head’, won the Short Story Day Africa Feast, Famine and Potluck story contest, and also won the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing.
Ukamaka Olisakwe was raised in Kano State, Nigeria. Her debut novel, Eyes of a Goddess, was published in 2012 by Piraeus Books LLC, Massachusetts. Her stories have appeared in various online journals and blogs including Saraba, Sentinel Nigeria, Short Story Day Africa and Naija Stories and her essays have been published in the Nigerian Telegraph and African Hadithi. Her screenplay, a movie series, has been accepted for production by an award-winning production stable and is set for release on major TV stations throughout Africa in 2015. She works as a customer service representative for a Nigerian Bank and is currently completing her second novel.
Chibundu Onuzo was born in Lagos, Nigeria. The youngest ever author to be signed by Faber and Faber publishers, her debut novel, The Spider King’s Daughter, was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Commonwealth Book Prize and won a Betty Trask Award. She writes comment pieces for the Guardian, with a special interest in Nigeria. She lives in London and is currently completing a PhD on the West African Student’s Union. Her new novel, The Wayfarer’s Daughter, will be published by Faber and Faber in 2016.
Nii Ayikwei Parkes was born in the UK and raised in Ghana. He is a writer, editor, broadcaster and performance poet. His debut novel, Tail of the Blue Bird, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize and translated into Dutch, German, French and Japanese. He is the author of poetry collections including the Michael Marks Award shortlisted pamphlet ballast: a remix, and The Makings of You. In 2007 he was awarded Ghana’s national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy. He is the publisher at flipped eye publishing, one of the most respected small presses in the UK, and curator of the African Writers’ Evening reading series.
Mohamed Yunus Rafiq is a Tanzanian writer and independent documentary film maker. Prior to his career in film and creative writing, he worked for five years as Baobab Connection country co-coordinator where he published monthly articles on globalisation and youth issues. He is the co-author of a poetry collection, Landscapes of the Heart, a member of the internationally acclaimed hip-hop group X Plastaz Collective based in Tanzania and the co-founder of Aang Serian Peace Village, a youth-led cultural preservation organisation.
Taiye Selasi is a writer and photographer born in London of Ghanaian and Nigerian parentage. Raised in Massachusetts, she now lives in Rome, Italy. Her debut novel, Ghana Must Go, was published to international acclaim in over sixteen countries and was selected as one of the ten best books of 2013 by the Wall Street Journal and the Economist. In 2013 she was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British novelists. She is currently writing her second novel.
Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka, Zambia. She is an associate professor in the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of a book of literary criticism, Seven Modes of Uncertainty, published by Harvard University Press. Her fiction has appeared in publications including Callaloo, Tin House and The Best American Short Stories 2009. She was shortlisted for the 2010 Caine Prize for African writing for her first published story, ‘Muzungu’, and is a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award recipient.
Lola Shoneyin is the author of three volumes of poetry and two children’s books. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, her debut novel, was longlisted for the Orange Prize and won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award and the Ken Saro-Wiwa Prose Prize. Her work has appeared in publications including the Iowa Review, Chimurenga, Poetry International and Orbis. She founded the Book Buzz Foundation in 2012 and is the director of the Aké Arts and Book festival. She lives in Lagos and is currently at work on a collection of poems and her second novel.
Novuyo Rosa Tshuma was born in 1998 in Zimbabwe. Her short fiction has appeared in publications which include A Life in Full and Other Stories and Where to Now, Short Stories from Zimbabwe. She was awarded the 2009 Yvonne Vera Award for her short story ‘You in Paradise’ and was shortlisted for the 2012 Zimbabwe Achievers Literature Award for her short story ‘Doctor S’. Shadows, her debut collection of a novella and short stories, was published by Kwela Books in South Africa in 2013 and was awarded the 2014 Herman Charles Bosman Prize. She was a judge for the 2013 Short Story Day Africa Feast, Famine and Potluck contest. Novuyo holds a Bcom in Economics and Finance from the University of Witwaterstrand, and is currently attending the r
enowned MFA Creative Writing Program at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where her writing has been recognized with several fellowships.
Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria. She is the author of the novels On Black Sisters’ Street and Night Dancer. A winner of the BBC Short Story Competition and a Commonwealth Short Story Award, she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2004. She won the Nigeria Literature Award (for fiction) in 2012 and her work has been published extensively in journals and papers around the world including the New York Times and the UK Guardian. She currently lives in the United States where she is at work on a new novel.
Zukiswa Wanner is the author of novels The Madams (2006), shortlisted for the K. Sello Duiker Prize; Behind Every Successful Man (2008); Men of the South (2010), Commonwealth Best Book Africa Region; and London Cape Town Joburg (2014). Wanner is also the author of non-fiction satire Maid in SA: 30 Ways to Leave Your Madam (2013); the children’s book (an African retelling of Rapunzel) Refilew (2014); and co-author with Alf Kumalo of the Mandela home biography 8115: A Prisoner’s Home (2010). Wanner is Zambian-born to a South-African father and a Zimbabwean mother, and live in Kenya.