NB/FARAFINA 2014 CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP OPENS

The annual Nigerian Breweries sponsored and Farafina Trust led Creative Writing Workshop has commenced with 32 participants, in Lagos. The workshop which is led by internationally renowned Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Adichie is scheduled to run from Tuesday, August 12 to Thursday, August 21, 2014. Prolific Kenyan author and winner of the Caine Prize for African writing, Binyavanga Wainaina, Norwegian writer, Aslak Sire Myhre and the author of ‘Fine Boys’, Eghosa Imasuen have been invited to co-facilitate the workshop with Adichie.

The 2014 Creative Writing Workshop will take the form of an interactive class session where participants will be assigned a wide range of reading, as well as daily writing exercises. The participants will also be exposed to creative techniques to help them bring different perspectives to the art of storytelling. At the end of the workshop, participants will be presented with certificates at a literary evening of readings that will be opened to the public. The literary evening is slated to hold on Friday, August 22, 2014 at the Oriental hotels by 5pm.

Some of the international writers who have facilitated previous workshop includes Jeffery Allen, a Professor of English at Queens College of the City University of New York and an instructor in the Writing Program at The New School. Robert Spillman, Editor of Tin House, a ten-year-old bi-coastal (Brooklyn, New York and Portland, Oregon) literary magazine that has been honored in Best American Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, O’Henry Prize Stories, the Pushcart Prize Anthology and numerous other anthologies. Amah Ata Aidoo, an award winning Ghanaian writer, Chika Unigwe and Binyavanga Wainaina have also been part of the literary workshop since its inception.

The Workshop has helped to discover and sharpen literary skills in Nigeria. It has trained about 100 creative writers and has featured several international writers as facilitators. Eghosa Imasuen, author of Fine Boys and one of the facilitators at this year’s workshop trained at the Workshop. According to the organisers, Farafina Trust in

with Kachifo Limited, publishers of the Farafina imprint of books, has also completed plans to publish of A Handful of Dust, a collection of stories from the 2013 class of the Creative Writing Workshop. The book will be released on the Kindle and other major e book outlets, including Okada Books in the coming weeks and a print edition should come soon after.

Nigerian Breweries has sponsored the Creative Writing Workshop Since 2009, in partnership with Farafina Trust. It says the sponsorship is a demonstration of its commitment to youth empowerment through talent development in Nigeria.