The dynamic duo of award-winning journalist and activist Chido Onumah and debutant novelist Richard Ali, will be the featured writers in the June 30 edition of the Guest Writer Session, an initiative of the Abuja Writers’ Forum(AWF), which holds at Hamdala Plaza, Plot 23, Jimmy Carter Street, off Protea Hotel, Asokoro, Abuja.
The Guest Writer Session which started in June 2008 is generally regarded as the most consistent literary event in the country and has become the template for similar interventions, has this year already featured an interesting mix of writers including Uche Ezechukwu, Steve Okecha, Oyibo Ameh, K K Iloduba, Betty Abah and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.
Chido Onumah , whose latest book is Time to Reclaim Nigeria (Essays 2001-2011), has worked as a journalist in Nigeria, Ghana, Canada, and India. He has been involved for more than a decade in media training for professional journalists as well as promoting media and information literacy in Africa. He is currently coordinator of the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Abuja, Nigeria. AFRICMIL is a pan-African centre dedicated to a new vision of media and information literacy as a key component in the education of young people in Africa. From 2002 to 2004, Onumah worked as Director of Africa programmes, Panos Institute, Washington, DC, U.S.A., helping journalists in West Africa, as well as the Caribbean, report in depth on issues that are frequently underreported or misreported — issues such as HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, and ethnic and religious conflicts.
Richard Ali, whose debut novel, City of Memories, was published in May 2012 by Black Palms Publishers and has received generally warm reviews, hails from Idah in central Nigeria andwas born in Kano into the family of Mr. Adejo Ukwubile Ali, a Chartered Accountant, and his wife, Ajuma [nee Ocholi], a Grade II teacher, in the early 80’s. He began his primary school education in Kano and continued in Jos when the family moved there in 1988. His extended family, hailing from Idah in the present Kogi State, is distinguished, having held high political positions in the 1st and 2nd Republics [NPC and NPN].
The June 30, 2012 edition of the Guest Writer Session starts at 4pm and will include the usual side attractions of poetry performance, mini art exhibition, and a raffle-draw as well as live music. The Abuja Writer’s Forum meets three Sundays each month and hosts a reading on every last Saturday at the International Institute of Journalism, Hamdala Plaza, Jimmy Carter Street, Asokoro, Abuja.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For inquiries: abujawriters@fastermail.com
Website: http://www.abujawritersforum.com/
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