PRESS RELEASE- THE INAUGURAL #BABISHAIMENTORSHIP
PROGRAM
10 NOVEMBER 2015
The Babishai
Niwe Poetry Foundation launches its pilot online mentorship scheme, which will
run from November 2015 to May 2016. This first of its quest, this program is part of the #Babishaipoetry annual prize, awarded to the shortlisted poets, who are some of the most highly
imaginative, exceptionally talented and unswerving poets. This mentorship
scheme in a sense, will enable them to foster a professional writing
relationship with dedicated mentors to African poetry, nurturing their craft and
building their confidence as performers. Some poets on the program are also
winners from previous years. Amongst our mentors, whom we are most privileged
to have are:-
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Nick Makoha represented Uganda at Poetry
Parnassus as part of the Cultural Olympiad held in London. A former Writer
in Residence for Newham Libraries, his 1-man-Show My Father & Other
Superheroes debuted to sold-out performances at 2013 London Literature Festival
and is currently on tour. He has been a panelist at both the inaugural
Being A Man Festival (Fatherhood: Past, Present & Future) and Women Of The
World Festival (Bringing Up Boys). In 2005 award-winning publisher
Flippedeye launched its pamphlet series with his debut The Lost
Collection of an Invisible Man. Part of his soon to be published 1st
full collection The Second Republic is in the anthology
Seven New Generation African Poets (Slapering Hol Press). Nick was a joint winner of the 2015 Brunel African Poetry prize
and has poems that appear in the TriQuarterly Review and Boston Review and emerged third in the #Babishai2015 Poetry Award.
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Kwame Dawes
Ghanaian-born Jamaican poet, Kwame Dawes is the award-winning
author of sixteen books of poetry (most recently, Wheels, 2011) and
numerous books of fiction, non-fiction, criticism and drama. He is the Glenna
Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner, and a Chancellor’s Professor of
English at the University of Nebraska. Kwame Dawes also teaches in
the Pacific MFA Writing program. Dawes’ book, Duppy Conqueror: New
and Selected Poems was published by Copper Canyon in 2013.Kwame is also
the founder of the African Poetry Book Fund and African Poetry Book Series.
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Stephen
Derwent Partington.
Poetry
is his primary hobby and passion. He began to write poetry at school. He
describes his poetry as accessible. His early writing was full of Modernist
allusions and foreign languages, but as he accessed more contemporary poetry
this disappeared.
He’d
probably also describe it as hybrid in the sense that while he has sought to
fit into the Kenyan (and wider African) traditions of broadly Anglophone verse,
lots of influences from his pre-Kenya days remain. He has been published widely
in various anthologies and also,
published
in; . Two collections, one in Kenya (SMS and Face to Face) and one from the UK
(How to Euthanise a Cactus).
Harriet Anena is
a Ugandan author, poet, and
journalist. She is the author of a collection of poems, "A Nation In
Labour" and currently works at African Centre for Media Excellence. Anena
worked with the Daily Monitor newspaper as a
reporter, sub-editor and deputy chief sub-editor from 2009 to September 2014.
Her journalistic articles have been published in the Daily Monitor, New Vision and The Observer (Uganda). She has
previously taught Specialized Writing at Islamic University In Uganda. (courtesy photo
Sopelekae Maithufi (courtesy photo)
Associate Professor in
the Department of English Studies, University of South
Africa. He generally researches how people in liminal positions
discursively perform context-specific identities. This is an interest that he
pursued with considerable earnestness subsequent to his MA degree candidacy in
Postcolonial Literary Studies in English at the University of Natal,
Pietermaritzburg. His PhD (Wits, 2009) explored the suitability of Njabulo
Ndebele's cultural studies model, the ‘ordinary’, to the representations of
textures of everyday life in several South African short story writers. It
reveals Maithufi's continued keenness in the novel ways in which subjects
appropriate positions of authority beyond antinomian lines. As somebody who
teaches mostly African literatures, literary and cultural studies theories from
across the world, Maithufi attempts to highlight dynamic interplays between
primary texts and theoretical frameworks.
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Aderemi Raji-Oyelade, popularly known as Remi Raji, Nigerian poet, scholar,
literary organiser, and cultural activist. He graduated with a B.A. Hons
degree, Second Class Upper, in English from the University of Ibadan in 1984.
He got his Master’s degree in Literature in 1986 and his doctorate degree in
African American and African literatures in 1994 from the same
university.Professor Raji-Oyelade has published a number of books and essays in
African, African American and Caribbean literatures, literary theory,
contemporary Nigerian poetry, cultural studies and creative writing. A visiting
professor and writer to a number of institutions including Southern Illinois
University at Edwardsville, Universities of California at Riverside and Irvine,
University of Cape Town, South Africa, Stockholm University, Sweden, and
Cambridge University, UK, his scholarly essays have appeared in journals
including Research in African Literatures and African Literature Today. He is
the author of six collections of poetry including A harvest of laughters (1997)
which has won national and international recognition, Webs of Remembrance
(2001), Shuttlesongs America: A Poetic Guided Tour (2003), Lovesong for My
Wasteland (2005), Gather My Blood Rivers of Song (2009), and Sea of my mind
(2013).In December 2011, he was elected as the President of the Association of
Nigerian Authors, the largest umbrella body of writers in any African country. He
served for two terms. Remi also serves on the board of the Babishai Niwe Poetry
Foundation.
We intend to host the mentors and
their poets at the #Babishai2016 Poetry Festival, which runs from 24 to 26
August 2016 in Kampala under the theme of Abundance: Poetry From Contemporary
Africa.
The poets on the pilot scheme are:-
1.
Lua
Nsume Davis (Cameroon/U.S)
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2.
Olajide
Salawu (Nigeria)
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3.
Tolase
Ajibola (Nigeria)
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4.
Roxanna
Kazibwe (Uganda)
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5. Sheila Okongo Nyanduaki (Kenya)
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6. Ann Waruguru Kiai (Kenya)
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7. Babajide Olesugun (Nigeria)
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8. Sanya Noel
(Kenya)
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9. Famia Nkansa
(Ghana)
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10. Adhiambo Agoro
(Kenya)
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11. Gbenga Adesina
(Nigeria)
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12. Tom Jalio
(Kenya)
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13.
Kelly
Taremwa (Uganda)
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14.
Adeeko
Ibukun (Nigeria)
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15. Rashidah Namulondo
(Uganda)
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This scheme will run annually and
there will also be open calls for submissions next year.
Contact
Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva
Email: babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com
Twitter: @BNPoetryAward
Facebook: Babishai Niwe Poetry
