2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Regional Winners Announced

The Commonwealth writers organization have announced the regional winners of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize who will each receive £2500.

From a Shortlist of twenty-two writers, five writers have been declared the regional winners of the 2015 competition. The winners are;  Lesley Nneka Arimah(Nigeria), Siddhartha Gigoo(India), Jonathan Tel (UK), Kevin Jared Hosein(Trinidad) and Mary Rokonadravu (Fiji). 

The Chair of the Judges of Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2015, Romesh Gunesekera describes the process:

'We had a strong shortlist of stories from around the world that excited the judges and provoked a lively, stimulating set of discussions. The judges were looking for well-crafted stories that were compelling and original. The standards were high. We wanted stories that would engage us and make us rethink our notions of form, language and what mattered. The winning stories did all of that and more. Thank you, writers'.

Here are the regional winners and all five winning stories.

Chimamanda Responds to the Controversial Statement by Oba Of Lagos

Award winning Nigerian writer and our favorite feminist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has shared her opinion on the controversial statement made by the Oba of Lagos, early this week.

Read her gracefully written response below:

The 2015 BN Poetry Award is open for entries!

Are you a Poet or do you love reading or writing Poems, then this is for you!

The BN Poetry Award is a Uganda-based award for unpublished poetry by African poets. The Awards was established in 2008. The call for submissions for this year’s award is now opened until May 2015, and the long-listed poets for the award will be announced later this year.

See the Panel of Judges for the 2015 BN Poetry Award after the cut.

Theatre Review: SaroTheMusical2

Easter edition, SaroTheMusical2; 100 Man Cast; Ran Through April 1-6. Show Duration: One Hour, 50 Mins.

A good musical has the tendency to excite its audience and put them in the middle of the narrative being portrayed. 

Theatre musicals offer a sincere expression of the characters’ emotional journey throughout the play. As compared to a movie, the audience shares a unique intimacy and responsiveness with the characters. 

SaroTheMusical2, a heartwarming story about four young musicians who migrate to Lagos from the countryside in search of better lives and careers, takes its storyline from the streets of Lagos and music from various African pop genres.

The proverbial hustle for success and love always makes for great drama as Laitan is reluctant to leave his love Rume, behind while still trying to achieve his dreams of being a musician in the big city. After an intense farewell between the lovers, the four friends begin their adventurous journey to Lagos without any knowledge of the city.

Commonwealth Writers Call for Proposals in Anthology of Non-fiction from Africa – Deadline 20 April

Commonwealth Writers are inviting writers from Commonwealth African countries to submit proposals for a piece of creative non-fiction.

They are seeking stories from the Africa continent, by African writers in the form of creative non-fiction, including memoir, life-writing, literary reportage and essays.   

The organisation is particularly interested in less-told stories from less-read writers. The stories will be part of an anthology edited by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey.

Shortlist for 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize announced, one Nigerian author makes the list

In September 2014, the call for entry for the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story competition was declared open, see report here.

According to the Commonwealth writers organisation, the competition attracted nearly 4000 entries and twenty-two stories from eleven countries have been shortlisted. 

DigitalBack Books introduces Virtual Literary Library on the go

In their bid to confront the challenges in the publishing industry in Africa, especially Nigeria and to further combat high production costs, heavily pirated books, lack of adequate infrastructure, poorly or inappropriately stocked distribution outlets among other issues, founder of Digitalback books, Gersy Ifeanyi Ejimofor and a team of scholars recently introduced a virtual digital library that allows readers access books from writers across Africa. 

The 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize theme announced

Short Story Day Africa is a non-profit organisation that brings together writers, readers, booksellers and publishers from all over the globe to write, submit, read, workshop and discuss stories.

The organisation established a day, 21st June which is the shortest day of the year on which to celebrate the diversity of Africa’s voices and also a medium to tell the world, who Africans really are; what they love; to eat, read and write about.

The Short Story Day Africa was inspired by Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, speech at the TED Conference in 2009, where she spoke of the danger of the single story, a distorted, one-dimensional view of Africa that sees the continent only through a prism of war, disease, poverty, starvation and corruption. See report here.

The sequel to Nelson Mandela's 'Long Walk to Freedom' is set to be published in 2016

Graça Machel, the widow of former South African president Nelson Mandela and former First Lady of South Africa recently announced her intention to complete the sequel to her late husband's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

The new book will express the former president's unique perspective on the first democratically elected government in South Africa's history.

Though the book is yet to be titled, it is said to be published in 2016 by Pan Macmillan and will provide readers with both an unprecedented account of Mandela’s extraordinary presidency and a deep personal insight into the man behind the international statesman.

Watch US President Barack Obama's message urging Nigerian's to vote in the upcoming election

Earlier today, President Barack Obama took time out of his busy schedule to leave a message on YouTube urging Nigerians to come out and vote in the upcoming elections.

Read on to see the transcription of the video.