IN SEARCH OF A BETTER WORLD: THE ROLE OF THE WRITER – 15TH AUGUST, 2020
MEET OUR PANELISTS
REMI RAJI
REMI RAJI is the pen name of Aderemi Raji-Oyelade, Nigerian poet, scholar, literary organiser, and cultural activist. His first collection of poems – A Harvest of Laughters (1997) – has won national and international recognition. A Salzburg Fellow and 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, and Cambridge University, UK., Raji’s scholarly essays have appeared in journals including Research in African Literatures and African Literature Today. He has read his poems widely in Africa, Europe and America. In 2005, he served as the Guest Writer to the City of Stockholm, Sweden. His other volumes of poetry include Webs of Remembrance (2001, rpt. 2003), Shuttlesongs America: A Poetic Guided Tour (2003), and Lovesong for my Wasteland (2005). Raji’s works have been translated into French, German, Catalan, Swedish, Ukrainian, and Latvian. He has been an Alexander von Humboldt Scholar to Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He currently teaches Literature and Creative Writing in the Department of English, University of Ibadan.
UCHECHUKWU PETER UMEZURIKE
Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike is currently a PhD Candidate and Vanier Scholar in the Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta, Canada. is the author of the children’s novel Sam and the Wallet (2007), the collection of short stories Tears in Her Eyes (2005), and two volumes of poetry, Aridity of Feelings (2006) and Dark Through the Delta (2004), which collectively have brought him numerous national and international awards.
ALICES.YOUSEF
ALICES.YOUSEF is a
Palestinian translator, blogger , and emerging poet, who has published short
stories and translations. Her work can be found on web-magazines including Two
poets write and Visual Verse. She holds a Masters in Writing from Warwick University
and isa fellow of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. She
tweets@Aliceyou
CHRISTINE YOHANNES
Christine Yohannes is
an Ethiopian Writer, a Poet and a Journalist but most of all a Human Being who
is a strong believer in Love. A 2016 Resident of the International Writing
Program, she is Ethiopia's only Female Representative out of 5 since the
program started in 1967.
Christine has changed countries, continents, jobs and appellations constantly;
fearless and adventurous, she has thrived in everything she's set her mind to
with the unshaken support of admirable African Women. She desires to do the
same for the Women around her and for future generations.
PROF. FEMI OSOFISAN (CHAIRMAN, ANA ADVISORY COUNCIL)
Femi Osofisan is one of the foremost dramatists in Africa. Femi Osofisan has had a distinguished career in the academy. He is Emeritus Professor of Drama, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is a Theatre Director, Actor, Critic, Poet, Novelist, Editor and Newspaper Columnist. Osofisan has written and produced more than sixty plays, five volumes of poetry, four novels and several collections of essays. Osofisan has won several other awards, including 1st Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service [WNBS] Prize for Independence Anniversary Essay, the first Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Literature award in 1983 for Morountodun and Other Plays and later for Drama with Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest in 1993. Minted Coins, a collection of poetry written under the pseudonym Okinba Launko, won the ANA Poetry Prize and the Regional Commonwealth Poetry Award for First Collection in 1987. In 2000, he was short-listed for the prestigious Neustadt Prize in the USA. He has been honoured with Officier de l’Ordre Nationale de Mérite, Rép. de France (1999); Nigerian National Order of Merit in the Humanities [NNOM] (2004); Fonlon-Nichols Prize for Literature and the Struggle for Human Rights (2006); and Fellow, Nigerian Academy of the Arts [FNAL] (2006). Osofisan was also a Drama Consultant to the Second World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture (Festac ’77), the Cultural Olympiad, 1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta, and Movement for Mass Mobilization, Social and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), Abuja, Nigeria (1989). He was also the President of ANA (1988-1990) and PEN, Nigeria (2004-2010), and one time General Manager and Chief Executive of the National Theatre, Lagos, Nigeria. Osofisan’s plays have been performed in many countries, where he has also held teaching or research fellowships, including Japan, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Lesotho, China, USA, Canada, UK, France, South Africa; his plays are among the most produced in Nigeria. Femi Osofisan is a founding member and Literary Editor of the first Editorial Board of The Guardian, Lagos (1983-84); Founder and Artistic Director, Kakaun Sela Kompani (1979) and CentreSTAGE-Africa [the Centre for Studies in Theatre and Alternative Genres of Expression in Africa, a non-governmental trusteeship organisation]; and Founder and Editor of Opon Ifa, a poetry chap-book (1974), which later became Opon Ifa Review, a quarterly journal of the arts, primarily for creative writing.
CAMILLUS CHIMA UKAH (ANA PRESIDENT)
ANA new president Camillus Chima Ukah describes himself as a contemporary Nigerian writer.
He was educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and has authored eleven creative literature books.
He also edited a five hundred and forty-nine page biography composed essentially of creative conversations.
He had scripted and produced two historical documentaries and two motion pictures.
In 2004 he received the ANA Imo Golden Pen Award; in 2006 he was honoured with the ELSA Award of Excellence for his role in mentoring young undergraduate Nigerian writers.
One of his novels, When the Wind Blows was, in 2008, long listed for the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, and in 2012 his entry, Nkechi the Heroine, won the ANA/Lantern Prize.
He had served the Association of Nigerian Authors in various capacities at both the state and national levels; at the state level, as Financial Secretary, Secretary and Chairman (Imo State); at the national level as member ANA National Constitution Review Committee (2005), member ANA National Teen Authorship Committee (2011-2015), National Coordinator, ANA Teen Authorship Scheme (2015- ), National coordinator, A-BOOK-A-CHILD project (2016- ), Member ANA Land Committee (2016- ).
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