Ready? Set? Go!

The car is set to move. Seats Are Filling Up Fast - Don't Delay! Writers’ studio offers an exciting range of top quality workshops, facilitated by acclaimed writers who are passionate about teaching the craft of writing. We tailor our classes to accommodate individual needs, so whether you’re a novice writer, or a writer wishing to develop your skills, our inspiring workshops are guaranteed to help you on the road to achieving your goal. 

This edition will feature Toni Kan, Azafi Omoluabi-Ogosi, Ayodele Morrocco-Clarke and Igoni Barrett.

Book a place today. Give us a call now! : 08034766250, 08079774009

Ake Arts and Book Festival

The Ake Arts and Book Festival is a celebration of arts and creativity like never before. Organised by the Book Buzz foundation, the festival would feature over 70 personalities; Wole Soyinka will headline the event. There will be masterclasses, workshops, book fair, book chats, art exhibitions among others. Registration for the masterclasses is on. 

Clear your calendar from November 19-24 and get ready to move to Abeokuta. Watch the Lola speak about the festival.

Learn more about the festival as Tosin Kolawole, the Director of Writers' Studio speaks with Lola Shoneyin on EfrikaTV.

Opportunity: Channels Book Club Competition

The Channels Book Club, supported by Lufthansa German Airline, Laterna Books and Goethe Institut presents the first edition of The Channels Book Club Prize For Literature (Teenagers’ Episode).

The Channels Book Club Prize For Literature (Teenagers’ Episode) is a national book review & essay competition for teenagers in Nigerian secondary schools.

We are giving a special opportunity to students within the ages of 13 and 19 in any secondary school within Nigeria to win a sponsored trip to the 2013, Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

 The secondary school students in Nigeria who are not older than 19 years old.

Rules

• Candidates must be bona fide students of any Nigerian secondary school.
• Candidates must enrol online, download and fill an entry form for the competition from Channels Website.
• Candidates must send by email the following:

-         The filled entry form (in b above)
-         An essay, reviewing the selected novel, in not more than 1500 words.
-         A scanned copy of a recent passport photograph
-         A scanned copy of the candidate’s last school academic report or score sheet in the last academic year.

The above requirements should be sent by email to thechannelsbookclub@channelstv.com on or before 25th of August, 2013

Opportunity: The Etisalat Prize for Fiction

Well, writing has started paying, if the book is good enough to win the Etisalat Prize.

The Etisalat Prize for Literature is the first ever pan-African prize celebrating first time writers of published fiction books. The Prize aims to serve as a platform for the discovery of new creative talent out of the continent and invariably promote the burgeoning publishing industry in Africa.

By recognizing and celebrating writers and other members of the literary community across Africa, Etisalat plans to bring some much needed awareness and acclaim to the art of Fiction writing while also applauding and rewarding the efforts of those who have ventured into this genre in recent times.

At the core of Etisalat’s vision is promoting passion, nurturing talent and providing a platform for communicating ideas, The ‘Etisalat Prize for Literature’ wholly embodies this vision, bringing together celebrated high profile writers, book critics and academics from across the Continent and beyond in order to give credence and honor to ‘home-grown’ talent while also rewarding new entrants and encouraging further participation in this area.

Prize Structure

The Etisalat Prize for Literature will celebrate new writers of African citizenship whose first fiction book (over 30,000 words) was published in the last twenty four (24) months. For the purposes of this definition, first book means first printed production in book form of any type or genre. Authors and their publishers can be based anywhere in the world. An online Flash Fiction Prize will be launched later in the year driven entirely by social media – more information on this will be made available on our website.

The winner of the Etisalat Prize for Literature receives £15,000, a Samsung Galaxy Note and a Montblanc Meisterstuck. In line with our vision of promoting upcoming writers, Etisalat will sponsor a book tour to three African cities. The winning writer will also embark on the Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia mentored by Professor Giles Foden (author of The Last King of Scotland) which will include significant opportunities to meet other writers, publishers and most importantly work on their second book. Shortlisted writers will win a Samsung Galaxy Note and also go on a book tour to two major African cities.

Deadline for submission is 30th August 2013.

More information about the prize is here. 

Books=Happiness?

True?

Read: Jumoke Verissimo on NTLitMag

Jumoke Verissimo is the author of I am Memory; she was one of our tutors at the first edition of Writers' Studio Workshop at Ibadan. She has a story "Abiku" published on NTLit Mag. Enjoy it!

An excerpt:

The dream picture she and Akin shared for the future never captured his brothers in them. They always seemed like intruders; always were. Indeed, Akin told her from the beginning of their relationship that he and his brothers were orphans and as he had taken the place of the father, she would become a mother to them all. However, there was this assumption that all the motherly care needed was to show affection and prepare them meals when they visited, and it did not seem a problem, but for the fact that the boys appeared to have found new meaning in those words. Whenever they visited the house, they stayed for a week – which was not a problem still. As she and Akin, slept on the bed and they found room somewhere on the sofa, floor or wherever. However, from the second day of their visit, they dropped their laundry and went to watch football or play video games or brought back some girls who usually had elastic blouse hugging their paw-paw breasts and tight jeans bundling their buttocks into a ball. They winked at her to excuse them, and it took only few minutes before she heard harsh moans and giggles from the room. She sat at the veranda until they left. There was some mutual agreement that she must never tell Akin, and she never did.

All the times they visited, since she began to live with Akin in their pretended marriage, she would at times stay through the evening washing clothes and sometimes ironing their clothes. They littered everywhere and begged her to please help out just once – which were every other time. When it was night, they kept her awake either from shouts of watching football or discussing the lives of relatives who abandoned them and whom they would show “pepper” when they became prosperous in future.

Call for Submissions: Flash Fiction International

An international anthology of very short stories, titled Flash Fiction International, to be published by W.W. Norton of New York, seeks stories from anywhere in the world. The editors are especially looking for Asia Pacific stories.

The stories should be under 750 words, in English translation or original English. Previously published work (within the last 10 years or so) is preferred, but new work will also be considered.

The co-editors are Christopher Merrill, director of the University of Iowa International Writing Program, James Thomas and Robert Shapard.

Submissions may be sent by email with attachment to Robert Shapard at his email rshapard@hawaii.edu. The submissions deadline is August 15. Submission limit is 3 stories.

Write Away!

 "...when a publisher says ‘that sort of book doesn’t sell,’ don’t throw it away. No one knows what sells. Until it does." Meg Rosoff

Donal Ryan's debut novel, The Spinning Heart completed more than two years ago, was rejected 47 times before it was finally published is among three Irish writers to make the longlist of the world's most important literary prize, the Man Booker Prize.

What does this say? Never give up! Perhaps your manuscript is right on the verge of being saved from the slush pile. 

It's the beginning of a new week! What are your writing goals? What do you want to get done before the week ends? Get on with it! Write away!

Opportunity: Morland Writing Scholarship

Writing could be a lonely road, a "hungry" one for some. Morland Writing Fellowship hopes to make that journey better with their writing scholarship. Read more below.

It can be difficult for writers in the early stages of their career to write and to earn a living outside writing at the same time. To help fill this need the MMF has established up to three Morland Writing Scholarships every year. The Scholarships will be open to anyone who has been born in Africa or both of whose parents were born in Africa.

Grant: The Scholars will receive a grant of £18,000, paid monthly over the course of one year.

Scholar's Undertaking: In return for this the Scholars will agree that 20% of whatever they subsequently receive from what they write during the year of the Scholarship will be paid to the MMF which may be used to support other promising writers and possibly to expand the Scholarship scheme in later years.

Qualifications: To qualify for the Scholarship a candidate must submit a piece of published work, or an excerpt from a piece of published work, of between two and seven thousand words to be evaluated by a panel set up by the MMF which will include MMF trustees and past participants in the Caine Prize. The Scholarships will be awarded based on these submissions although the Foundation may also wish to question certain candidates or ask for other work.

More info here

Writing Tips

It's a new month, so we start with interesting tips for the writer. This is from The Ready Writer's Consult.

Finding the right word was a lifelong quest for French novelist Gustave Flaubert. He once wrote in a letter to Guy de Maupassant:  Whatever you want to say, there is only one word that will express it, one verb to make it move, one adjective to qualify it. You must seek that word, that verb, that adjective, and never be satisfied with approximations, never resort to tricks, even clever ones, or to verbal pirouettes to escape the difficulty.

1. Be Patient

In revising, if the right word is not at hand, run a search, sort, select process through your mind to see if you can find it. (Even then, a word may be elusive, refusing to emerge from the mind one day only to arise from the subconscious the next.). Be prepared to rewrite today what you revised yesterday. Above all, be patient: take the time to select words that will transfer your exact thought to the mind of a reader.

2. Wear Out Your Dictionary

Once you have a dictionary, use it! Wear it out! When you sit down to write and need a particular word, pause to consider the key ideas you want to convey. Start with a word that's closely similar in meaning. Look it up and go from there, exploring synonyms, roots, and usage notes. A usage note in the dictionary can lead you to the word that fits, just like the right jigsaw puzzle piece slips into place.

3. Recognise Connotations

Don’t think you can substitute one word for another simply because a thesaurus groups them together under a single entry. The thesaurus will do you little good unless you are familiar with the connotations of possible synonyms for a given word. "Portly," "chubby," "chunky," "heavy," "overweight," "stocky," "plump," and "obese" are all possible synonyms for "fat," but they are not interchangeable. Your task is to select the word that conveys most accurately the precise shade of meaning or feeling you intend.

4. Don’t Rely on Your Thesaurus

Using a thesaurus will not make you look smarter. It will only make you look like you are trying to look smarter.

5. Beware of Fancy Language

There is a difference between vivid language and unnecessarily fancy language. As you search for the particular, the colourful, and the unusual, be careful not to choose words merely for their sound or appearance rather than for their substance. When it comes to word choice, longer is not always better. As a rule, prefer simple, plain language over fancy language.

Avoid language that seems stilted or unnecessarily formal in favour of language that sounds natural and genuine to your ear. Trust the right word – whether fancy or plain – to do the job.

Read more on their Facebook Page.