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8-week Literature & Creative Writing Evening Course: Literatures of the Horn of Africa, 21 February to 15 April 2018, Bristol

By Africa in Words on 12 February , 2018 • ( 0 )

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL AND THE SOMALI RESOURCE CENTRE
INTRODUCE:
LITERATURES OF THE HORN OF AFRICA
TEXT AND COMMUNITY

An 8-week Literature and Creative Writing Course @ Barton Hill Settlement 43 Ducie Rd, Bristol BS5 0AX

Tutor: Billy Kahora

Day: Wednesday evenings
Time: 6.00 p.m. – 7.30 p.m.
Dates: Wed 21st Feb – Wed 25th April 2018
The course will run every Wednesday evening with a break for Easter. No class 28 March and 4 April.
Cost: No course fee to pay. Tuition fees are funded by the University of Bristol.

What are the Literatures of the Horn Of Africa? How do they relate to other Literatures of the World? How do they discuss questions of national identities, histories, cultures, transnational issues and migration? What role do literature and texts play in community engagement? This 8-week course explores the writing that has emerged from Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ogaden, Kenya and the Somali diaspora. Texts for discussion will be provided in advance and include short sections from essays, novels and short stories by Nuruddin Farah, Nadifa Mohamed, Abdourahman Waberi, Alemseged Tesfai, Diriye Osman and Abdul Adan.

The course offers an overview of the range of literatures produced by writers from the Horn of Africa and explores how writers from this region and its diaspora have represented their experiences. The course will train participants on how to analyse texts and how best to explore and present their responses, as well as to think about the role literature plays in building identities and communities. By enrolling on this course students will also build skills and experience in learning from and contributing to university-level seminar discussions.

The course will be run by Billy Kahora, a Kenyan writer and academic. Billy Kahora is Lecturer in Creative and Professional Writing at the University of Bristol. He is the author of non-fiction novella titled The True Story Of David Munyakei and has twice been shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. He is also Managing Editor of Kenya’s leading literary publisher Kwani Trust and has edited 7 issues of the Kwani? journal.