2024 ILS East African Writers Fellowship Fund

Please help us make ILS a success this year by giving back to the vibrant East African Writing community! Your donation will support the 2024 East African Fellowship winners selected by ILS Kenya and our partners, Jahazi Press.

WHY SHOULD YOU DONATE?

The world needs new literary voices from diverse cultures and international exchange between literary artists to increase global understanding, open minds to new perspectives, and increase compassion for diverse experience.

Our 2024 literary seminars in Kenya will bring together emerging writers from around the world to study with renowned faculty that includes renowned writer/editor Dawn Raffel, African Writers Trust board member and poet Mildred K. Barya, scholar and poet Polina Barskova, writers-in-residence Biko Zulu and Iryna Shuvalova, and others.

For the success of this program, it is critical to have students from the host country and greater region as well. This is key to our goal of promoting intense levels of intellectual companionship. There’s nothing quite like being in the same boat – in this case, that of a student – to help people connect.

We view the benefits of our program as a two-way street in terms of the value of the interaction. While international students will benefit from their shared time with East African students, of course, we expect that exposure to an international literary community will benefit the East African participants as well.

However, many talented emerging East African writers do not have the personal means to pay for the tuition and travel required to participate in the program (they are writers, after all, not industrialists). Hence the need for financial support. We want writers to be able to participate based on their talent and commitment to writing, regardless of whether or not they can afford the tuition.

Additionally, all fellowship applicants will also be considered for publication in the Fence magazine, which will help expose them to an international readership.

WHAT WILL YOUR DONATION PAY FOR?

Our fundraising goal is $12,500 USD to help us provide at least five fellowships, including tuition, travel, and accommodations to the following winners:

In fiction:

Gloriah Amondi, “Watamu”

Noella Moshi, “Her Delicate Skull”

Buke Abdub Galma, “My Name is Blank”

In poetry:

Alexis Grace Teyie, “Salvation and the Ecstatic”

Billy Hani, “Baking Bread”

The selection process is based on merit and was overseen by ILS program advisors made up of prominent and highly accomplished members of the Kenyan literary community, including Ahmed Aidarus (Jahazi Press), Tony Mochama, Alice Muthoni Gichuru, John Mwazemba, and Khainga O’Okwemba.

The final round was overseen by the ILS board and Fence magazine.

We will be sure to update all donors so they can learn the stories and read the writing of our fellowship winners. We will also invite all donors to an exclusive session of our ILS Literary E-Salon, which is free to attend, where they can meet the fellowship winners and hear them read their work.

The more we raise, the more fellowships we can provide. There were a number of runners-up that we would like to support as well.

BIOGRAPHIES OF THIS YEAR'S WINNERS

Buke Abduba is a writer currently residing in Moyale, Kenya. She is a doctor of pharmacy by profession and just recently graduated. She was shortlisted for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and her story "Price Tags" is published on Adda. Her hope as a writer is to share stories that are set within her community so as to share the beauty of culture, traditions, and struggles. She hopes her stories can inspire others to share their own truths, especially those who feel unseen or unheard.

Gloriah Amondi is a lawyer, a linguist and a writer. She writes for The Nation Newspaper where she contributes to different columns that run from Friday to Sunday. However, for her own writing, she focuses on essays and fiction. She also contributes to the most nationally popular blog called ‘Bikozulu’ and also writes for a science organization. Other than that, she has had her work published in a number of literary magazines including Kalahari Review, Ibua Literary Journal, Lolwe Literary Magazine and Dooney’s Café among others. Several articles and essays have also been discussed in the AMKA Women’s Space. Other works are forthcoming in different journals and websites. When she's not writing, she teaches Mandarin to kids.

Billy Hani is a queer trans artist and activist based in Kenya. Their writing and photography

explores African sexuality, gender identity and expression, bodies and mental health. Billy Hani

was the 2022 Creative Arts Fellow with ‘Adventures From the bedrooms of African Women’ where their work tackling abortion, periods, pleasure and queerness were published. They have been an Artist in Residency at 32 Degrees East in Kampala.

Billy Hani has won multiple awards for photography and activism including ‘Upcoming Human

Rights Defender of the year 2022’ awarded by the Working Group on Human Rights Defenders in Kenya and the British High Commission Climate Changemakers Photography Competition in March 2021.

Some of their work has also been published by Taboom Media, The Continent, Minority Africa, and FemInStyle Africa among others.

They are currently the Director HeART Out Kenya, a mental health organisation that uses art

therapy to promote individual and collective care and mental wellness among LGBTIQ+ activists

and feminists. Billy works and volunteers with different LGBTIQ+ organizations on advocacy and

communication, and currently leads the Board of Directors of Q-Initiative Eldoret.

They seek, and document queer joy!

Noella Moshi is an author of fiction and poetry who writes about the complexities of family, womanhood, and identity. Her short stories have appeared in various publications, including The Heart Is a Bastard, the Sundown Anthology (Black Letter Media), Iskanchi Press Mag, Neon Door, Down River Road, and others. She has also published poetry on Writer’s Space Africa, a platform for African writers. She is currently working on her debut novel, which explores themes of generational trauma, freedom vs. safety, and the different ways people show love.

Alexis G Teyie is a poet and researcher. Alex currently works as a publisher with Down River Road (https://downriverroad.org/). Past work includes a children's book, Short Cut, and a poetry chapbook, Clay Plates: Broken Records of Kiswahili Proverbs.

NEWS AND UPDATED BIOGRAPHIES FROM LAST YEAR'S WINNERS

One of last year's winners, Munira Hussein, who was studying microbiology at the University of Nairobi and dreaming of focusing more on her writing, was approached by an agent at The Shipman Agency in New York City, which now represents her. Another, Gladwell Pamba, was accepted into a Masters in Creative Writing program, at Concordia University, in Montreal.

Munira Hussein was born and raised in Marsabit, Kenya. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from Kenyatta University and writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Her short story, "Powder in the Wind," was shortlisted for the African Writers Award in 2018. She received a Writing Gender Residency by Huza Press and Goethe Institute, Kigali Rwanda shortlist in 2021. Her articles, poems, and short stories have appeared in Urban Ivy and the Paranoid Tree. She won the International Literary Seminars Fellowship in 2022. Munira is a Peer Review sessions facilitator for the Manitoba Writers Guild Youth Program. She is represented by the Shipman Agency, New York. Check out her work on https://munirahussein.com.

Dennis Mugaa, one of the 2022 fellowship winners, is a writer from Meru, Kenya. He was shortlisted for the Isele Magazine Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Afritondo Short Story Prize. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Jalada Africa, Lolwe, Isele Magazine, and Washington Square Review. He has studied for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia (UEA) where he was a 2021/2022 Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship recipient. He is currently at work on a novel, Other Time, Other Life. Read interviews with Dennis in Fantasy Magazine and in Paukwa: Writing From Observation.

Gladwell Pamba was the 2022 East Africa winner of the International Literary Seminars (ILS). She has previously been nominated for Best of Net Publications and won Afreada Contest in 2019. This year, she received fellowships to the Oxbelly Writers’ Retreat in Greece and to Uganda for CC Adetula Fellowship for African Women in Creative Writing. Her works are anthologized while others appear in Kiwetu Journal, Iskanchi Press, Bakwa Magazine, A Long House, Kalahari Review, AfroRep, Patchwork, The Offing, Waxwing, Tint Journal, and Five South Journal.

WHO WE ARE

The mission of ILS as a not-for-profit organization is to amplify the literary and cultural visibility of Kenya — specifically, Nairobi and Lamu — within an international context and with a particularly sharp focus on showcasing the vibrant and complex voices of emerging East African writers. To do this, we offer a unique and intensive series of literary workshops, craft development sessions, and cultural offerings in Nairobi and Lamu that foster artistic cooperation, elevate emerging literary talent, and increase mutual understanding across the North American, East African, and international literary communities.

We are committed to ensuring that we have as international a program as possible in 2024, with students from East Africa. To do this, we aim to provide at least five full fellowships to East African Writers, including writers of fiction and poets.

We are a small nonprofit organization, so a little goes a long way. Donate any amount to help us provide these fellowships.

THE ORIGINS OF ILS

Our thriving network is informed by our parent program Summer Literary Seminars (1998-2019), which brought well over 1500 emerging writers to Russia, Kenya, Lithuania, Georgia, and Montreal, with many participants going on to publish critically acclaimed books.

Our December 2022 program was our first in-person program since COVID, when ILS marked a new form of seminars that prioritizes close connections, small group work, and equal inclusion of both local and international participants.

WANT TO SPREAD THE WORD OR GET INVOLVED?

If you know anyone who wants to help support international culture and promote emerging writers from East Africa, share the link to this campaign.

Share this link with family, friends, and community members who’d appreciate our work. If you have questions or want to support our work beyond this crowdfunding campaign, please email info@internationalliteraryseminars.

Click here to access our website: International Literary Seminars

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Thank you for helping us make these fellowships a reality!