2023 Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop Fellows

by | Dec 28, 2022 | Gist Corner

The Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop is pleased to announce its first fellows.

TITLE                                             NAME/NATIONALITY/GENRE

_____________________________________________________________

  1. Entry Wound                                            Ebubechukwu Udeoba (Nigeria) -Poetry
  2. Building a Nest                                          Adaobi Chiemelu (Nigeria) -Poetry         
  3. Sour                                                           Matshediso Radebe (South Africa) -Fiction    
  4. Sunlit                                                         Immaculate Halla (Tanzania) -Fiction
  5. The Sin of a Saint                                      Mohan Akal (Kenya) -Fiction                           
  6. Mother                                                      Ntombikamama Moyo (Zimbabwe) -Fiction          
  7. Disappearing Footprints                            Nnaemeka Nnam (Nigeria) -Poetry
  8. Seventy Times Seven                                 Anjola Ogunsanwo (Nigeria) -Fiction
  9. The Night I Drank Myself to a Stupor       Adeola Aregbesola (Nigeria) -Fiction
  10. The Things You Should Have Said           Zenande Black (South Africa) -Fiction

These ten writers will attend a five-day virtual workshop, from the 9th to 13th of January 2023, taught by Frances Ogamba, Okey Ndibe, Ukamaka Olisakwe, T.L. Huchu, Mubanga Kalimamukwento, and Kasimma.

Works from the workshop will be considered for publication on Isele Magazine.

Thanks to their sponsors, the organisers of this workshop can offer each fellow a modest stipend.

Ebubechukwu Udeoba (Nigeria)

Ebubechukwu Udeoba, a Nigerian writer. is an alumnus of the 2021 SprinNG writing fellowship. His work has appeared in Kalahari Review, NSPP anthologies, and elsewhere. He was a finalist for the Nigerian News Direct Poetry Prize, 2020, and was the 2nd Runner Up in the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize (NSPP) 2021. He’s on Twitter @ebubeudeoba.

Adaobi Chiemelu (Nigeria)

Adaobi Chiemelu is a consummate artist of Igbo-Nigerian descent. She is deeply passionate about beauty, truth, language, nature, and culture. She is currently working as an editor and researcher on a number of Igbo language and culture projects.

She is the author of Purple Heart, a poetry chapbook with a confessional theme, released October 2022 and available for purchase. You can find her online (IG/Twitter/YouTube) @adaolilies.

Matshediso Radebe (South Africa)

Matshediso Radebe is a 22-year-old South African short fiction writer. Her pieces tend to be built on characters and their relationships more than anything else. She has been writing since she was nine but only recently started taking short fiction craft more seriously.  She is a BA Communication student.

Immaculate Halla (Tanzania)

Immaculate Halla was born in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. An avid reader with a passion for writing short stories, novels, and poetry. She shows some of her work in Writers Space Africa, and she runs a substack newsletter called ‘One More Book’, which is a lounge for books, bookworms, and writers.

Mohan Akal (Kenya)

Akal Mohan is an emerging writer and poet currently based in Kampala, Uganda. He reads in trust and writes in faith and thinks of stories as a way of processing the world. 

Ntombikamama Moyo (Zimbabwe)

Ntombikamama Moyo has an Honours degree in Publishing Studies from the National University of Science and Technology and has previously worked as a Publisher’s assistant, copy editor, and proofreader. In 2020, she published her debut novel In 30 Days.  Her short story, “Stuck in Limbo”, was shortlisted in a national writing competition and subsequently published in the Intwasa Short Stories Anthology Volume 2 in 2022. Ntombi’s work is biased towards romance and drama which celebrates family and friendship values.  

Nnaemeka Nnam (Nigeria)

Nnaemeka Nnam is a Nigerian Poet who exists on the margin. Their poems have been published or are forthcoming in Nnọkọ Stories, W&S and elsewhere. Nnaemeka wants you to embrace love, sadness and joy as they come. When they are not obsessing over books on Instagram, they are wishing upon a star.

Anjola Ogunsanwo (Nigeria)

Anjola Ogunsanwo holds a first-class degree in communications from Covenant University. She works as a copywriter and social media strategist and TV host. Her works have been featured in Green Black Tales and Taint Taint Taint lit Mag. In 2020, her first feature manuscript Of Orchids and New Songs was shortlisted for the Quramo Writers prize.

Adeola Aregbesola (Nigeria)

Adeola Aregbesola is a 23-year-old Nigerian writer.

Zenande Black (South Africa)

Zenande Black is a writer who studied Film and Television. She writes scripts and short stories. Zen spends most of her time writing and growing her own food.

Please join us in congratulating them!