Adebayo, Okani, Jimoh for Ebedi residency
Three female writers, Ayobami Adebayo, Kasimma Chinelo Okani and Temitope Shadiat Jimoh will be the resident writers for the June-July session of the Ebedi Writers Residency in Iseyin, Oyo State.
The trio will be in residence for between four and six weeks in which they are expected to write while their basic needs are catered for. The residency administrators hope that the three women’s background in writing will help them bond in creating an enabling environment to rub minds and advance their works.
Ayobami Adebayo was a participant in the first Chimamanda Adichie-led Farafina Trust creative writing workshop in 2007 (then Fidelity Bank Creative Writing Workshop) and was one of the 20 writers selected to participate in the Iowa Writer’s Programme’s Advanced Fiction Seminar in 2013. In 2012, she was a writer in residence at Ledig House (OMI) New York and was awarded an International Bursary to study Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in 2013.
Her novel, ‘Stay with Me’, will be published in October 2016 by Kwani, in the UK and USA in 2017 by Canongate and Knopf. Ayobami will spend her time in Ebedi to finish another novel and mentor Iseyin students in the arts of Creative Writing and Folktale.
Kasimma Chinelo Okani on the other hand published her first three novellas in 2005 as a first year student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the books were adopted for the General Studies courses for her class group.
Her 2009 debut novel, ‘Buried Truth’, was published by Author House and her short story collection was published in 2015 before she quit her job in a bank to focus on her writing career.
The mother of three, hopes to use her time at the residency to complete another novel, while mentoring students in Iseyin on short story writing.
The third writer on the programme is Temitope Shadiat Jimoh who is also a full time writer and professional bead maker. She is a member of the Society of Young Nigerian Writers, Abeokuta Book Club and Nigerian Women Writers Forum. She hopes to spend her time in Ebedi completing work on her first book of short stories, as well as mentor Iseyin students in the art of bead making and folklore.
The Ebedi International Writers Residency, which is in its 6th year, has hosted more than 60 writers from Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroun, South Africa and Ivory Coast. It is a private initiative for writers to complete their on-going works free of charge in a conducive environment.
In return, the residents are expected to mentor Secondary School students in Iseyin and environs in any area of creative art convenient for them.