Author Bios

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ is the author of Stay with Me (2017) and A Spell of Good Things (2023)

Jerry Chiemeke is a writer, music journalist, film critic and lawyer. His works have appeared in The Africa Report, Berlinale, The Republic, Africine, Netng and The Lagos Review, among others. He lives in London, from where he writes on Nollywood, African literature, and Nigerian music.

Iquo DianaAbasi is a creative writer and performer. She writes prose, poetry and scripts for radio and screen. Her writings explore societal issues, womanhood, the environment and the need to embrace our humanity as a precursor to healing.

Coming Undone as Stitches Tighten, Iquo’s second poetry collection, was nominated for the 2022 NLNG Nigeria prize for literature. In April 2022, Iquo released Beyond the Staccato, her first audio offering of poems and music. This album is a commentary on the state of affairs in Nigeria.

She is also the author of the short story collection, Èfó Rírò and Other Stories, which was released in 2020 to much acclaim, and Symphony of Becoming, which was longlisted for the NLNG Nigeria prize for literature, the ANA poetry prize, and the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature.

Her writings appear in African Literature Today, Poetry potion, Brittle Paper, Kalahari review, AfricaInWords, Saraba magazine, Ebedi Review, ANA Review, and several other print and online poetry anthologies.

Iquo is known to perform her poems with a touch of Ibibio folklore. Stages she has graced include: Pa Gya! Festival Accra, Lagos International Poetry Festival, Ake Arts and Book Festival, The Big60 Cultural Exchange, Wole Soyinka @80, Lagos Black Heritage Festival, The Macmillan Literary night, PLAY Poetry Festival and more.

Iquo edits the African speculative fiction magazine, omenana.com and is presently a graduate student at The University of Alabama.

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim is the multi-award-winning author of Season of Crimson Blossoms, awarded the 2016 Nigerian Prize for Literature and translated into several languages including French, German and Tamil.

It follows his debut short story collection, The Whispering Trees, which explored the fantastical and ordinary to capture colourful Nigerian lives. It was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing and the Etisalat prize for Literature.

He is also the recipient of the Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling, and the BBC African Performance Prize and has received several fellowships and residencies around the world. His latest book, When We Were Fireflies is his fourth book and second novel.

Nnedinma Jane Kalu’s short stories have been featured or forthcoming in American Short Fiction, Boston Review, The Hopkins Review, Isele Magazine, Munyori Review, and elsewhere. She was a scholar at the American Short Fiction 2022 Workshop and is currently a Doctoral Fellow in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika is a writer of novels, short stories and essays translated into several languages. She is author of the best-selling novel In Dependence (2009) and multiple shortlisted novel Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun (2016), and has had work published in publications including Granta, The Guardian, the Washington Post and Transfuge among others. Named one of the "100 Most Influential Africans” by New African in 2022, Sarah has served on a number of non profit Boards including as Board Director for the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, and as Board Chair for the women’s writing residency, Hedgebrook. She has been a judge for the Goldsmiths Prize, California Book Awards, Aspen Words Literary Prize, and Chair of judges for the Pan-African Etisalat Prize. Sarah is a San Francisco Library Laureate, an Audie finalist, a Mary Carswell MacDowell fellow, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her most recent book is Between Starshine and Clay: Conversations from the African Diaspora.

Masimba Musodza was born in Zimbabwe, but has spent much of his adult life in the United Kingdom. His short fiction has appeared in anthologies and periodicals around the world and online. He has published two novels and a novella in ChiShona, and a collection of short stories in English. He also writes for motion picture.

João Melo's stories have appeared in Words Without Borders, Catamaran Literary Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Archipelago Books and Ellery Queen Mistery Magazine. He was awarded the 2009 Angola Arts and Culture National Prize in the literature category.

E.C. Osondu is a winner of the Caine Prize, the Pushcart Prize and the BOA Fiction Prize. He's the author of two novels and two short story collections. He's a professor of English at Providence College in Rhode Island. His writing has been translated into many languages including Japanese, Icelandic, Swahili, Italian etc.

Troy Onyango is a Kenyan writer, editor and lawyer. His work has appeared in journals and magazines including Prairie Schooner, Wasafiri, Caine Prize Anthology, Brittle Paper, and Transition Magazine issue 121, for which his short story "The Transfiguration" was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His short story "For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings" won the fiction prize for the inaugural Nyanza Literary Festival (NALIF) Prize

Chika Unigwe is a widely translated and widely published author of novels, short stories and nonfiction. She has won awards for her writing. Her newest novel is The Middle Daughter. Unigwe teaches at Georgia College, Milledgeville.