Poetess Cecilia Kato Tackles Gender Issues
The prolific poetess, Cecilia Kato, will read from her poems in print and work in progress at the highly-acclaimed Guest Writer Session on July 30, 2011. An initiative of the Abuja Writers Forum (AWF), now in its third year, the event holds at the Pen and Pages Bookstore, White House Plaza, Plot 79, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja and has featured an exciting array of emerging and established writers. A lecturer at the University of Abuja, Mrs Kato is considered to be one of the leading female poets from ...Read More

Six Make NLNG Literature Prize Longlist
Six home-based writers have made the initial shortlist of the 2011 Nigeria Prize for Literature. Philip Begho, a two-time contender for the prize, made the list with his ‘Aunty Felicia Goes to School'; runner-up for the 2007 edition, Uche Peter Umez with ‘The Runaway Hero' and Ayodele Olofintuade with ‘Eno's Story'. Other works on the list contained in a release from Ifeanyi Mbanefo, Manager, Corporate Communication and Public Affairs of Nigeria LNG, the sponsor of the highly coveted prize, are ‘The Missing Clock' ...Read More

Caine Prize for African Writing 2012
The Caine Prize is open to writers from anywhere in Africa for work published in English. Its focus is on the short story, as reflecting the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition. The Prize is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. Indicative length is between 3000 and 10,000 words. “An African writer” is taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, or who is a national of an African country, or whose parents are African ...Read More

Akachi Ezeigbo Revisits The Civil War
Memories of the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War will reverberate on June 25, 2011 when Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo reads from her latest novel, Roses and Bullets, at the highly-acclaimed Guest Writer Session. An initiative of the Abuja Writers Forum (AWF), now in its third year, the event holds at the Pen and Pages Bookstore, White House Plaza, Plot 79, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja and has featured an exciting array of emerging ...Read More

Ihenyen’s Polemics Beats Aesthetics
The Guest Writer Session of Abuja Writer’s Forum took place on May 28, a day to the Presidential Inauguration ceremony. Its focus was on the nation’s socio-political realities as well as the travails of its literature. A university lecturer called attention to it and in effect drew the battle line between the message and the aesthetics of poetry. It has become a recurring issue in poetry writing in this clime where, according to the lecturer, Prof. Unoma Azuah, writers get carried away with the message they intend to ...Read More

A Poetry Senator Comes To Town
Aficionados of literature will have an opportunity on May 28, 2011 to share in the musings of a poet whose first name ordinarily would make him pass for a member of the national assembly. Emerging poet Senator Iyere Ihenyen is the featured writer at the highly-acclaimed Guest Writer Session, an initiative of the Abuja Writers Forum, now in its third year, by 4pm at the Pen and Pages Bookstore, White House Plaza, Plot 79, Adetokunbo ...Read More

Abubakar Othman’s Heady Poetic Fusion
Sometimes, a man’s profundity may be better appreciated when seen in person.. Such was the case with the man in the spotlight at the April edition of the Abuja Writers’ Forum’s Guest Writer Session. The pre-event publicity had stated that the poet finds poetry rather enigmatic for its power of introspection, circumspection and translucence, and of all forms of poetry, he finds romantic poetry healthier for its therapeutic and cathartic effects on the human soul. Dr Abubakar Othman however had something ...Read More

Fidelity Bank's 2011 Writing Workshop
Diana Evans, Orange Prize novelist, for Fidelity Creative Writing Workshop. Diana Evans, winner of the inaugural edition of the Orange Prize for Fiction has been selected along with British-Sudanese novelist, Jamal Mahjoub to teach at this year’s edition of the International Creative Writing Workshop organized by Fidelity Bank Plc. The workshop which will be anchored for the second time in two years by prize-winning novelist, Helon Habila, is scheduled for June. The choice of Evans and Mahjoub is purely in recognition of the ...Read More

AWF Hosts Toyin Adewale-Gabriel
The Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) is set to host Toyin Adewale-Gabriel – poet, short story writer, critic and literary activist, at the February 26 edition of the highly-rated Guest Writer Session, following on the heels of the successful kick-off of the 2011 Season on January 29 with the poet, Ikeogu Oke. The event takes place by 4pm at the Pen and Pages Boosktore, White House Plaza, Plot 79, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja Born in Ibadan, Oyo State and currently resident in Abuja, Adewale- Gabriel ...Read More

Guest Poet Ikeogu Oke reads angry, but beautiful poetry
The poet, Oke Ikeogu, was the first writer in the year to feature at the regular Guest Writer Session organized by the Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF). In this report, TUNJI AJIBADE, a Communications Consultant, highlights the event . A question led to it - the issue that turned out to be the subject of the day, that is. And that, at the January edition of the Abuja Writers’ Forum’s Guest Writer Session. The prolific poet, Ikeogu Oke, was in the house that time, and he was asked a question. It is about the poetry of many Nigerian writers ...Read More

AWF Kick-starts New Season
The proactive Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) is set to kick-start its 2011 literary calendar with the poet Ikeogu Oke at the Pen and Pages Bookstore, venue of the highly-acclaimed Guest Writer Session on January 29, 2011. This comes in the wake of eventful 2010 literary season which featured readings by national and international writers, creative writing workshops, weekly critique sessions and the publication of Dugwe, an in-house literary journal of writings by AWF members and previous guest writers including Uche Umez, Igoni ...Read More

Bringing Back The Book Through CSR
We of the Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) are very skeptical about this whole Bring Back The Book Campaign. We have reluctantly agreed to be part of today’s programme. Our pessimism is not difficult to explain. Nigeria is a country that thrives on gimmickery and hypocrisy . This present campaign is not the first of its type in the country. Indeed, this same administration in its earlier configuration had been involved in what was described as the Read Campaign. In late May, 2008, the then, according to a newspaper report ...Read More

AWF: A Commitment To Literary Service
DR. EMMAN USMAN SHEHU, founding President of Abuja Writers Forum (AWF), and Director of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Abuja, hails from Maradun in Zamfara State. The holder of doctorate in African Literature in English has published two collections of poetry, Questions For Big Brother and Open Sesame. And a third collection, Icarus Rising will soon be available. He is also working on a collection of short stories. Shehu is a veteran journalist, having worked in both broadcast and print media. He has also ...Read More

Umaisha and Omalicha Offer November Literary Treat
Two emerging writers, Sumaila Umaisha and Ifeyinwa Omalicha, will feature at the 28th edition of the Abuja Writers’ Forum’s Guest Writer Session, which holds on November 27 by 4pm at the Pen and Pages Bookstore, White House Plaza, Plot 79, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 2. Sumaila Umaisha, literary editor of the Kaduna-based New Nigerian, is a short story writer and poet. His stories and poems have appeared in several journals, anthologies and online publications. He has also won several awards for literary ...Read More

A Poet’s Passion For Words
Not many things can be done successfully without passion. The Fulani poet, Kabura Zakama should know, and he showed much of it, at the October edition of Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF’s) Guest Writer Session. “My first effort at writing poems was an attempt to express my feelings; so many of the poems you find in this book are very personal. When you read them, you read part of my life,” was how Dr Zakama began when he took the ‘hot seat’ at the Pen and Pages venue of the event in Abuja. The personal angle ...Read More

Adelakun’s Ibadan Tale Unfolds In Abuja
Adelakun’s Ibadan Tale Unfolds In Abuja The 26th edition of the Guest Writer Session, a popular monthly literary event hosted by the Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) which showcases emerging and established writers, will feature Abimbola Adunni Adelakun whose debut novel Under The Brown Dusted Roofs is steadily generating an avalanche of literary enthusiasm. Ms Adelakun who grew up and schooled in Ibadan, recently completing a Master of Arts degree in the department of Communication and Language ...Read More

Abuja Writers Forum Launches Journal
Literature lovers gathered for the launch of the Abuja writers Forum’s annual anthology on Thursday, September 2 in Abuja, lamented the poor reading culture in the country. The journal, ‘Dugwe’, is a collection of short stories and poems by the group’s members. The Minister of State for Information and Communication, Laraban Maku, who spoke at the event, commended the AWF for its efforts in using literature to educate and entertain audiences. He noted that those who aspire to be writers must be avide readers ...Read More

A Crusader Shows Her Passion
It was a day literary high literary drama when Mrs Ngozi Onyioha-Orji took the centre stage at the August 28 edition of the monthly Guest Writer Session organized by the Abuja Writers Forum. At the event, the late Esiaba Irobi, poet, dramatist, and a scholar who passed on in Berlin, Germany in May this year at the age of 49, was remembered when his poem, ‘The Ceramic life’ was performed to an appreciative audience, and his contribution to the art commended. The event was compered by Ms Oluchi Agbayim ...Read More

Ngozi Onyioha-Orji Unravels Fictional Knots
The August 28 edition of the Guest Writer Session, a popular monthly literary event hosted by the Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) which showcases emerging and established writers, will feature Ngozi Onyioha-Orji who is gradually establishing a reputation for dealing with issues of child abuse through her novels. Mrs Onyioha-Orji who hails from Nkoporo in Ohafia LGA, Abia State, was educated in Nigeria and the United Sates of America (USA). She majored in English Literature for her first degree, and then did ...Read More

Measuring Words With Helon Habila- By Mike Ekunno
Helon Habila, Nigerian born US-based award winning novelist and first Chinua Achebe Fellow was home recently and took his turn on Abuja Writers Forum’s Hot Seat. The occasion was the Forum’s monthly guest writer’s session for the month of July which held at its usual venue – the Pen and Pages Bookshop on the very last day of the month. Habila, whose new novel is on the Niger Delta conundrum is being keenly awaited by literary buffs, read ‘The Hotel Malogo’, a short story to the packed hall. Before his reading, ...Read More

Fidelity Creative Writing Workshop ends in Abuja - By Chuks Oluigbo
The 3rd edition of the Fidelity Creating Writing Workshop which started in Abuja on Friday, July 16, 2010, has come to an end with a grand closing ceremony held at Sheraton Hotels, Abuja on Thursday, July 22, 2010. Sponsored by Fidelity Bank Plc, the week-long workshop was facilitated by Nigerian-born Helon Habila, author of Waiting for an Angel and Measuring Time, and creative writing teacher at George Mason University, Virginia, the United States of America ; Madeleine Thien, award-winning ...Read More

Helon Habila Measures Words In Abuja - By Abdullahi Abubakar
The popular Guest Writer Session, a literary intervention by the Abuja Writers Forum, will feature on July 31, prize-winning author and poet Helon Habila. Born in Kaltungo, Gombe State, but currently teaching Creative Writing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Habila shot into international prominence in 2001 when he won the Caine Prize with his Waiting For An Angel, a novel of interconnected stories. In 2002 he moved to ...Read More

The Day “Sharp Mouth” Came To Town - By Mike Ekunno
The June edition of Abuja Writers Forum’s (AWF) Guest Writer’s Session that held on 26th June was like no other before it. It lived up to its billings on every parameter. On hand to read was Ms. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani whose deafening buzz after winning the Commonwealth Prize with her debut novel has gone international now. Ever since she was announced as the 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize winner for Best First Book (Africa), her profile has continued to point skywards. The audience was fully seated by the ...Read More

A Muse Stirs Poetic Images - By Tunji Ajibade
For the past two years, the cultural and artistic landscape of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has been bolstered by the Abuja Writers’ Forum's interventions including the monthly Creative Writing Workshop that seeks to hone the talent of potential writers of the future especially poets. The July edition coincided with AWF's second year anniversary, and featured Toyin Adewale-Gabriel as the resource person, who added colour to the regular highlights of the poetic training project ...Read More

International Creative Writing Workshop 2010
Fidelity Bank sponsors a week-long international creative writing workshop in Abuja from July 16 - 22, 2010 with Helon Habila. He will be supported by Madeline Thein a prize-winning author from Canada and the Jamaican-born Collin Channer.The workshop which is an important CSR input for Fidelity Bank is into its third edition. See details for participation ...Read More

A Day With Chimamanda Adichie - By Tunji Ajibade
It appeared it wouldn’t come. Her email. Then it did. A surprise. I had resigned myself to the fact that it wouldn’t be this year again. Her proposed special reading and book signing in Abuja, that is. “Uncle Tunji, our class prefect,” her mail began. Imagine, she didn’t forget the title ‘Uncle’ she gave me when I attended her (Farafina Trust) writing workshop in September, 2009. She had continued with her message. She would come to Abuja ...Read More

Visionary Poet Ojaide Set For Abuja
The May 29 edition of the regular Guest Writer Session hosted by the Abuja Writers’ Forum (AWF) features one of Nigeria’s important literary voices, Tanure Ojaide, noted not just for his prolific output as a poet but also for his commitment through literature to the Niger Delta struggle.
Currently a Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Tanure Ojaide was born in 1948 in the oil-rich but economically impoverished Niger Delta area ...Read More

Chimamanda Adichie’s Special Abuja Event - By Tunji Ajibade
Abuja Writers’ Forum, AWF, in collaboration with the Public Affairs Section of the United States Embassy will host Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, on May 15, in the nation’s Federal Capital, Abuja .
As part of the day-long programme, Ms Adichie will conduct a creative writing workshop for a selected group of young aspiring writers in the morning. Later in the day, by 4pm, the multiple award-winning writer will interact ...Read More

When Lola Shoneyin Took Magical Flights
On April 24, writers in the nation's capital city, Abuja, hosted Lola Shoneyin, one of Nigeria's most significant female literary voices, who just returned from the launch and promotional tour of Britain for her new novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives. In this report, TUNJI AJIBADE, a consultant writer, catalogues happenings at an event that was the focus of all literary attention in the week it took place ...Read More

Halima Sekula Takes Her Tales To Abuja - By Abdullahi Abubakar
Following in the wake of Eugenia Abu successfully kick-starting the First Quarter of the 2010 Literary Season of the Abuja Writers Forum, Halima Sekula takes her turn on February 27, at the Pen and Pages Bookstore, venue of the acclaimed Guest Writer Session. Dr Sekula, an emerging female voice from the North, is the author of Honour Among Thieves (Drama), Tongues of Flame (Poetry), and The Waiting Place (Short stories) ...Read More

When I was in-house with Chimamanda Adichie
The 2009 edition of the creative writing workshop organized by Farafina Trust, a brainchild of Nigeria’s award-winning author, Chimamanda Adichie, came to a close recently. In this article, TUNJI AJIBADE, who was one of the participants tells of his experience. As I strike the keyboard of my computer for this, I wonder what point of view I should use. The newspaper version of my report of the creative writing workshop organized by Nigeria ’s Chimamanda Adichie in which I wrote as if I was not involved appeared a bit stiff to me ...Read More

Alkali Kicks-off Last Quarter
The last quarter segment of the Abuja Writers’ Forum’s Guest Writer Session kicks-off on September 26, with an emerging writer from the North Eastern part of Nigeria, Fatima-Ba’aram Alkali. Author of the debut novel, Personal Angle, Ms Alkali who describes writing as a hobby, is currently a law lecturer at the University of Abuja She is the daughter of Zaynab Alkali, a renowned novelist from Northern Nigeria and a deputy vice chancellor ...Read More

Face To Face With Gabriel Okara - By Kuni Tyessi
There he was, the octogenarian whose works I was introduced to some years ago. The introduction to his works was one of my baptism in the famous world of literature. I remember so well that as a student, I needed to cram some of his lines in order to buttress my points, convince my teacher and gain more marks. His famous works, Piano and Drums, Fisherman's Invocation, and The Call of the River Nun, happen to be my favourite. Love for the three made understanding and explaining them a delight. ...Read More