Farafina/ABC Literary Cafe Call for New African Writing Enters Second Phase

The first phase of the New African Writing initiative is almost over, with fifteen of the best entries selected for review. We now announce the start of the second phase, and for writers who did not get a chance to submit the first time, this is another opportunity. Kachifo Limited and ABC Literary Cafe once again call on emerging African writers to send in their submissions.


The submission instructions are same as before. Send in your short stories of not more than 5,000 words to shortstories@kachifo.com, and include your name, email address and phone number. Please note that nonfiction entries and stories over 5,000 words will not be considered. Also, writers are not allowed to send in more than one entry; where they do, we will accept the first and disregard any others. The deadline for this phase is midnight on the 19th of February. From the entries submitted in this second phase, another fifteen of the best will be selected and critiqued by our panel of esteemed writers. Writers who sent in submissions for the first phase are free to participate again, provided they send in a different entry.
New African Writing is aimed at promoting and showcasing new writing out of Africa, and as part of this initiative, Doreen Baingana will be hosting a session at The Life House on February 17, where she will talk about writing and give writing tips and lessons for emerging writers, read from her work and answer questions from the audience. Doreen won the 2006 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the AWP Award in Short Fiction for her book, Tropical Fish. She was also a two-time finalist for the Caine Prize for African Writing.

Call for Submission: Farafina Wants New Nigerian Writing

New Nigerian Writing is hosted by the ABC Literary Cafe at The Life House, and Kachifo Limited, publishers of Farafina Books. This event will provide an opportunity for emerging Nigerian writers to showcase their work and be exposed to critique and feedback from established writers.

Emerging writers are requested to submit any piece of prose of no more than 5,000 words. Thirty pieces will be selected from the submissions, and the writers will be invited to read five minutes of their work during the event. Our panel of distinguished writers will be on hand to critique their work on both days of the event. The thirty selected pieces will be subject to further editing and review by both the panel and Kachifo Limited, and the top fifteen will be included in an e-book of short stories to be released later in 2012. The stories not selected for publication in the short story collection will be published on the Farafina blog. The closing date for submission is February 5, 2011.

The New Nigerian Writing readings will be held at The Life House, 33 Sinari Daranijo Street, off Younis Bashorun Street, off Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. The dates are February 10 and February 24; the time is 6pm.

Submissions should be sent by email to shortstories@kachifo.com. All submissions should include the name, phone number and email address of writers. Selected writers should be available to read their work at the events, or have a representative available to read on their behalf.

Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop, 2010

As usual, Farafina Trust will be holding a creative writing workshop in Lagos, organized by award-winning writer and creative director of Farafina Trust, Chimamanda Adichie, from May 20 to May 29 2010. The workshop is sponsored by Nigerian Breweries Plc. Guest writers who will co-teach the workshop alongside Adichie are the Caine Prize Winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, Chika Unigwe winner of a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship for creative writing, South African writer Niq Mhlongo and celebrated Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo.

The workshop will take the form of a class. Participants will be assigned a wide range of reading exercises, as well as daily writing exercises. The aim of the workshop is to improve the craft of Nigerian writers and to encourage published and unpublished writers by bringing different perspectives to the art of storytelling. Participation is limited only to those who apply and are accepted.

To apply, send an e-mail to Udonandu2010@gmail.com

Your e-mail subject should read ‘Workshop Application.’

The body of the e-mail should contain the following:

1. Your Name

2. Your address

3. A few sentences about yourself

4. A writing sample of between 200 and 800 words. The sample must be either fiction or non-fiction.

All material must be pasted or written in the body of the e-mail. Please Do NOT include any attachments in your e-mail. Applications with attachments will be automatically disqualified. Deadline for submissions is April 22 2010. Only those accepted to the workshop will be notified by May 6 2010. Accommodation in Lagos will be provided for all accepted applicants who are able to attend for the ten-day duration of the workshop. A literary evening of readings, open to the public, will be held at the end of the workshop.

Onyeka Nwelue's fear of not being read!

Born in 1988 in Nigeria, Onyeka Nwelue travelled extensively to Asia, particularly to India. In 2004, he was described in The Guardian as a 'teenager with a steaming pen'. His writings have appeared in The Sun, Kafla Inter-Continental and The Guardian. He's presently a student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In this interview, he answers questions about his fears, the writers that he loves and the strangest thing that got into his hair.

Who is Onyeka in one sentence?

Onyeka is a writer born in 1988 in Nigeria

Which talent would you most like to have?
Talent as a writer.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My Christian background.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Life.

What is the last thing you read that made you laugh?
White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

Who is your perfect audience?
My siblings.

How does being a Nigerian influence your writing?
Many ways.

When is the best time for you to write?
When I'm depressed, hungry, lonely and angry.

What is your most treasured possession?
My hair.

Writers that influenced you
Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Jude Dibia, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Kiran Desai.

What is the book that changed your life?
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

What inspires your writing?
Everything

Describe your writing in a sentence?
Stories that reveal the unreal parts of life.

How will you introduce your child to writing?
No way. My father didn't 'introduce' me to politics.

What part of writing do you enjoy most?
The flow of thoughts; the writing itself.

What would a story about your life be called?
The Humourous and Mystical Life of Onyeka Nwelue. Or The Wondrous Tale and Tale of Onyeka Nwelue. Or The Paltry Sultry Years of Onyeka Nwelue.

What is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear is not to be read.

Who are your favourite writers?
Arundhati Roy, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie are my favourite writers.

What do you love most about India?
Its diversity in everything.

Where is Onyeka, the writer and person in five years?
I live my life in a minute. Don't know.

Animals: do you eat or save them?
I think both. I eat and save animals.

Your house is on fire; what will you take with you?
Any manuscript I'm working on.

What is the strangest thing that has ever been found in your 'afro'?

A HB pencil during POST-UME at Nsukka

Five minutes left on earth, what will be your last words?
Live and let's live.

What do you hate about being Nigerian?
The claim that when you are religious different, you are 'possessed by an evil spirit'.

What were you thinking of when you wrote The Abyssinian Boy?
I was thinking of a world that can only exist in my wildest imagination.

What is the worth of a book?
A book I can read, laugh and clap, even when I'm supposed to cry.

NB. Watch out for A WRITER AND A REVIEWER: Onyeka 'in response' to a review of his novel The Abyssinian Boy.