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Deadline: 30 September 2011

THE BURT AWARD FOR AFRICAN LITERATURE

Supporting and encouraging a love of reading for young adults

WRITING COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT

The Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE) in collaboration with the National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK) and with the generous support of a Canadian patron, Mr. Bill Burt, have the pleasure to invite Kenyan authors to take part in a writing competition to produce engaging and educational stories for the youth (12 – 18 years old) which will be published as part of the Burt Award for African Literature. Objectives of the Award

1. To support and motivate the development of supplementary reading materials for a critical stage of learning – the transition period between mother tongue and the English medium of instruction in both primary and secondary schools.
2. To publish stories which strengthen the English language skills of the youth and help foster enthusiasm and a love for reading.
3. To stimulate and support the African publishing industry and contribute to the literary wealth of African literature.
4. To increase the stock of English reading materials in school and community libraries.
5. To recognize excellence in literature for youth.

Criteria for the Award’s Writing Competition

The story should:

1. Be written in English.

2. Demonstrate a solid command of English through a clear cohesive language and proper sentence structure, vocabulary and punctuation.

3. Be thought-provoking and original: It should have an excellent story telling style e.g. strong imagery, lively dialogue, and vivid description to arouse young readers’ interest and curiosity and keep them turning pages.

4. Be prose fiction containing content and language appropriate for ages 12-18 years old.

5. Have a strong literary merit including:
a. Engaging characters with whom young readers can identify and a protagonist who overcomes challenges or obstacles in a positive way.
b. A well-developed plot with a good fl ow of events.
c. The effective use of literary devices, such as flashbacks.

6. The story should reflect current issues and challenges of concern to contemporary Kenya.

7. Submissions which shall have the potential to evolve into a book series or sequel are welcome.

Manuscript Submission Guide

1. The length of the manuscript should be between 120 – 150 pages.
2. The manuscript should be in chapter form.
3. They should be type-written in double space.
4. The font type should be Times New Roman, font size 12.

The Awards

1st Prize - CAD$ 12,000
2nd Prize - CAD$ 6,000
3rd Prize - CAD$ 3,000

Deadline for Submission

All manuscripts, which must be in soft copy, should be submitted to: info@nationalbookcouncilkenya.org by Friday 30th September 2011 at 12.00 noon. The manuscripts will be assessed by a panel of qualified jurors based on the criteria set herein. The winners together with the date and venue for the award ceremony will be made known through the media.

For more information about the Award, please contact:
The National Book Development Council of Kenya
P.O. Box 10904 - 00100
NAIROBI, KENYA
Tel. 254 020 2721876; 2725006
Cell Phone +254 770 108 556
Email: info@nationalbookcouncilkenya.org,
www.nationalbookcouncilkenya.org and www.codecan.org

The long-awaited Burt Prize for African Literature was finally launched in Kenya on Wednesday, January 19th at the Kenya National Library Service Headquarters. For other countries, inquire at:

Tanzania:

Children’s Book Project for Tanzania
Tel: (255) 22 2760750
Email: cbpvitabu@yahoo.com
Website: www.cbp.or.tz

Or CODE
Burt Award for African Literature – Tanzania
Tel: (613) 232-3569
Email: codehq@codecan.org

Ghana:

Ghana Book Trust, PO Box LG 536 Legon-Accra
info@ghanabooktrust.com; gbt@africaonline.com.gh
www.ghanabooktrust.com

Or Tel: (613) 232-3569
Email: codehq@codecan.org

Ethiopia:

CODE Ethiopia
Addis Ababa
tel: +251-11-515-31-66
code.et@ethionet.et

Or 613-232-3569
codehq@codecan.org

OBJECTIVES OF THE AWARD

* To recognize excellence in literature for our youth
* To support and motivate the development of supplementary reading materials for a critical stage of learning- the transition period between primary and secondary school
* To strengthen the English language skills of the Kenyan youth and help foster enthusiasm and love for reading
* To stimulate and support the African publishing industry and the development of African literature
* To increase the stock of English readers in established school and community libraries

CRITERIA FOR THE AWARD’S WRITING COMPETITION

* The manuscripts shall be written in English and show the mastery and use of the English language.
* The manuscripts should be thought-provoking and original
* The manuscripts should portray strong and admirable principle characters
* The manuscripts should use humor and/ or suspense to entertain and captivate the reader
* The manuscripts should deploy dialogue and drama to become lively to read
* The manuscripts should reflect modern realities and address some of the social problems which are facing adolescents and young reader today.

Click on the images to enlarge:

Contact the National Book Development Council of Kenya:

PO Box 10904 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel. 254 020 2725006/ 2721876
Mobile +254 770 108 556
E-mail: info@nationalbookcouncilkenya.org

More information here or at the CODE Canada website here.

A Keele University lecturer has released a book promoting new Kenyan writers and their work.

Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya is the fourth in CCC Press’s series of World Englishes Literature Fiction, which aims to promote emerging writers unknown in the West.

Edited and introduced by Keele University’s Dr Emma Dawson, Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya will be published on January 31.

The 15 stories in the collection tackle themes including politics, reality television, love, family, identity, and money. Writers include Mukumu Muchina, Shalini Gidoomal and Rasna Warah.

Dr Dawson appeared on breakfast television in Kenya to call for stories for the anthology and was inundated with submissions from new and established writers. She also worked with publishing house and writers’ collective Storymoja in Nairobi, and gave lectures at the University of Nairobi and Moi University in Eldoret.

“It’s an exciting time for Kenyan writing,” says Dr Dawson. “Everyone is talking about a revival in the African literature scene and Kenya is producing more new writing than other East African countries. They’ve come through their election strife and there’s now a burst of people expressing the new Kenya.”

Stories from Dr Dawson’s anthologies of works from Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya have been submitted for the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing.

She is currently editing an anthology of short stories from Malaysia, to be published later this year as part of the same series, and is also working on a book called Reading New India, which will be published by Continuum in summer next year to celebrate 65 years of India’s independence.

* Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya, edited with an introduction by Emma Dawson, is published by CCC Press, priced £12.99.

Dates: 28 October - 2 November 2012

MAI is pleased to announce LittWorld 2012 will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, October 28 to November 2, 2012. “MAI returns to Africa with the goal of building on momentum from the 2009 conference, which ranked among the best so far, and to increase our training support on the continent,” said MAI president John Maust.

Every three years, MAI convenes LittWorld, the only international conference of its kind, providing intensive training on strategic, publishing-related topics. The conference gathers more than 150 publishers, editors and writers from 30-plus countries.

Barine Kirimi, chair of the local host committee, welcomes Christian publishing colleagues worldwide. “Jambo! You will find empowerment and encouragement as you fellowship with a global community, united with one purpose. You can't afford to miss Littworld 2012 in Kenya. Mark the date now. Karibu!

LittWorld 2012 will include a weekend pre-conference exclusively for Africa’s French-speaking Christian publishing staff and writers. Confirmed speaker Daniel Bourdanné, general secretary of IFES and former publisher said, “I feel very encouraged to know you are planning to come back to Africa in 2012. This will certainly help build momentum for the publishing work in Africa, which remains fragile.”

The African Church increases annually faster than anywhere else in the world. But many African believers lack Christian literature written by Africans. The continent is also the world's youngest region; children under 15 make up more than 40 percent of its people. Enormous potential exists to bolster the Church and reach a new generation via life-giving books and articles.

Men and women from 94 countries have participated in the conference since it began in 1986. Through LittWorld, MAI has seen publishing houses born, new books conceived, and skills refined for more effective publishing. Inevitably, participants take away a new or reinforced commitment to publish books and articles by local authors in the heart language and culture of readers.

James Kwok, a psychologist and writer from Singapore, said, “What a great privilege for me to attend LittWorld 2009 Kenya, and share in the joy of Jesus with brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world, while being equipped to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through the written word.”

Contact Information:

For inquiries: info@littworld.org or call (630) 260-9063.

Website: http://www.littworld.org

Deadline: 23 May 2011

CIMMYT is an internationally funded, non-profit research and training organization affiliated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The center works to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat farming systems, thus helping to ensure global food security and to reduce poverty. Its partners include national agricultural research systems, non-governmental organizations, and advanced research institutions, both public and private, in globally-focused projects and programs. CIMMYT employs about 600 permanent staff and operates through decentralized partnerships, with offices in 13 developing countries and projects and networks in many more. In Kenya, CIMMYT is hosted by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi.

The Position

CIMMYT seeks a talented, dedicated Science Writer/Editor to help reach external audiences with pertinent technical and general information about its research maize, wheat, socioeconomics, and conservation agriculture, with special focus on sub-Saharan Africa. The Science Writer/Editor will be based at CIMMYT’s office in Nairobi, Kenya.

Responsibilities

The Science Writer/Editor will edit technical scientific publications, grant proposals, and other technical information; and write and edit non-technical material intended to increase public awareness of CIMMYT’s activities, as required.

The specific responsibilities include:

* Help develop diverse communications products, including the corporate annual report, project brochures, funding proposals, policy briefs, technical bulletins, scientific books and chapters, journal- and magazine articles, and varied content for web pages.
* Edit scientific articles, technical reports, and other documents for accuracy, clarity, style, and usage.
* Identify high interest stories throughout the Centre’s research programs and write and/or edit stories in a range of styles for dissemination in suitable formats and to various target audiences.
* Participate in communications planning and strategy development.
* Support and guide media outreach.
* Support and guide extension communications.
* As required, travel to document CIMMYT’s work on the ground, including field visits and taking still and video photography.
* Assist scientists in preparing scientific posters, presentations, and other materials.
* Select and provide photographs for use in publications and presentations.
* Assist in preparing presentations for scientific conferences and meetings.

Qualifications and Experience

* Minimum a BA or BSc in communications, journalism, literature, science, agriculture, or another relevant field, and preferably 4-5 years of work experience relating to the position.
* Strong, proven skills in English writing and grammar.
* Fluency in English and Kiswahili; working knowledge of French and/or Spanish desirable.
* A capacity to understand processes and issues related to science and technology; with a focus on issues affecting agriculture and development in sub-Saharan Africa.
* Ability to write/edit under pressure, with high accuracy and to deadline.
* Creativity, particularly in devising new approaches to publications content.
* Ability to work in a team of professionals from many countries and cultures.
* Willingness to travel within the region and, occasionally, internationally.

Terms of offer

The World Agroforestry Centre and CIMMYT are equal opportunity employers and offer a collegial and gender-sensitive working environment. We believe that staff diversity promotes excellence and strongly encourage applications from qualified women. This position is on local terms and will be for an initial period of one (1) year, renewable subject to three (3) months’ probation period, assessment of performance, continued relevance of the position and availability of resources.

How to apply

Applications for the position must include:

* A cover letter illustrating your suitability for the position against the listed requirements and salary expectations.
* A detailed curriculum vitae.
* Two writing samples (preferably formally published).
* The names and addresses of three referees, including telephone, fax numbers and email addresses.

All correspondence should be addressed to the

Human Resources Unit,
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF),
PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya OR via
email: icrafhru@cgiar.org

and should indicate “Application for a Science Writer/Editor-CIMMYT” on their application letters and email submissions.

Applications will be considered through 23rd May 2011: Please note that only short-listed applicants meeting the above requirements will be contacted.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: icrafhru@cgiar.org

For submissions: icrafhru@cgiar.org

Website: http://www.worldagroforestry.org; http://www.cimmyt.org

Deadline: 15 February 2011

Summer Literary Seminars is announcing its annual Unified (Kenya, Montreal and Lithuania) Literary Contest, held this year in affiliation with The Walrus Magazine. We are thrilled this year to have Jayne Anne Phillips judging the fiction, and Matthew Zapruder judging the poetry.

Contest winners in the categories of fiction and poetry will have their work prominently featured online in Canada's premiere literary magazine, The Walrus, as well as published in print in a participating literary journal in the United States (TBA). Additionally, they will have the choice of attending (airfare, tuition, and housing included) any one of the SLS 2011 programs – in Montreal, Quebec (June 12 - 25); Vilnius, Lithuania (August); or Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya (December).

Second-place winners will receive a full tuition waiver for the program of their choice, and third-place winners will receive a 50% tuition discount.

A number of select contest participants, based on the overall strength of their work, will be offered tuition scholarships, as well, applicable to the SLS 2011 programs. Read the full guidelines below.

Fiction Judge: Jayne Anne Phillips was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia. She is the author of four novels, Lark and Termite (2008), MotherKind (2000), Shelter (1994) and Machine Dreams (1984), and two collections of widely anthologized stories, Fast Lanes (1987) and Black Tickets (1979). Her novel Lark and Termite was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award for fiction. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and a Bunting Fellowship. She has been awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction (1980) and an Academy Award in Literature (1997) by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work has been translated into twelve languages, and has appeared in Granta, Harper’s, DoubleTake, and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction. She is currently Professor of English and Director of the MFA Program at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey.

Poetry Judge: Matthew Zapruder's third book of poems Come On All You Ghosts, is out from Copper Canyon in Fall 2010. He is also co-translator from Romanian, along with historian Radu Ioanid, of Secret Weapon: Selected Late Poems of Eugen Jebeleanu. He has received a William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, a May Sarton Award from the Academy of American Arts and Sciences, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. His poems, essays and translations have appeared in many publications, including Open City, Bomb, Slate, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Tin House, Harvard Review, Paris Review, The New Republic, The Boston Review, The New Yorker, McSweeney's, The Believer and The Los Angeles Times. In Fall 2010 he will be the Holloway Lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley. An editor for Wave Books and a member of the permanent faculty in the low residency MFA program at UC Riverside-Palm Desert, he lives in San Francisco.

Guidelines:

• One short story or novel excerpt, maximum twenty-five (25) pages per entry.
• No more than three (3) poems per entry.
• Only previously unpublished work can be submitted.
• Include your complete contact information (address, telephone, email address) on the manuscript. Entries are not judged blind.
• All entrants will be notified of the winners in the spring by email.
• Cover letters are not required.
• Previous First-Place winners may not re-enter.
• Online entries are preferred, but hard copies are allowed (information below).
• Deadline: February 15, 2011
  

Entries can be submitted electronically, to: sls.contest@gmail.com

Please state whether you are submitting poetry or fiction in the subject line (e.g. SLS Fiction/Poetry Contest)

NOTE: Please do not send payments to the above email address – we request that if you pay online you use the Paypal button found in the site.

Entries can be submitted by mail to:

Summer Literary Seminars International
Unified Literary Contest (Indicate fiction or poetry)
English Department
Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8 Canada

PAYMENT

A $20 USD reading fee must accompany each entry. Multiple entries are permissible, as long as they are accompanied by separate reading fees.

Fees can paid paid online, via Paypal, or to the address above, by cheque.
Click this button to pay the $20 (USD) Contest Fee.

NOTE: Online submissions and payments are much preferred, but if you would rather submit the hard copy and pay by cheque, please use the above address.

These are the complete contest guidelines.

Do not hesitate to contact SLS with any questions, by e-mail: sls@sumlitsem.org, or mike@sumlitsem.org – or by telephone: (514) 848-2424x4632.

Here are 25 writing contests, careers, calls for submissions, and other opportunities for African writers with submissions or applications due on the 31st of March, 2011:

• Call for African American Poets: Enter the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award -03/31/2011

• Call for Papers: Co-operative Development in Africa: Prospects and Challenges -03/31/2011

  Journalists of Color Invited to Apply for The 2011 Society for Features Journalism Diversity Fellowship (Arizona) -03/31/2011

• The SA Writers' College 2011 Annual Short Story Award For Emerging Writers in South Africa -03/31/2011

• Call for Books: The 2011 Nigerian Studies Association Book Award -03/31/2011

• Call for Submissions: Anthology of Middle Eastern/ Muslim Short Fiction -03/31/2011

• Apply for the Speculative Literature Foundation Older Writers Grant -03/31/2011

• Job Opening: Humanities Editor for Jomo Kenyatta Foundation (Kenya) -03/31/2011

• Call for Submissions: January 25 (Revolution) Anthology -03/31/2011

• 2011 BN Poetry Award for Ugandan Women -03/31/2011

• Call for Submissions - Sentinel Nigeria: Online Magazine of Contemporary Nigerian Writing -03/31/2011

• World Petroleum Congress Prize for Young Authors -03/31/2011

• The R25,000 EU Literary Award 2011 for Unpublished Work of Fiction (South Africa) -03/31/2011

• Third Annual South African Wine Writers Award -03/31/2011

• Apply for The Foreign Correspondents’ Scholarship Programme in Finland (eligible African countries: Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia) -03/31/2011

• Anthony Sampson Foundation Award for a Writing/ Reporting Project Relevant to South Africa -03/31/2011

• Forum of Women of the Mediterranean Short Story Competition -03/31/2011
  


• Win a Publication Contract: Whispers Publishing 2011 Explore Our World Fiction Contest (length: 15,000-30,000) -03/31/2011

• Siemens Africa Profile Awards for Excellence in Science and Technology Journalism -03/31/2011
  


• Excellence in Journalism Awards - Tanzania Officially Launched -03/31/2011

• The $1,300 Mahdiya/ Aga Khan Museum International Essay Writing Contest -03/31/2011

• Job Opening: Copy/ Sub Editor for Film Event Publishing (South Africa) -03/31/2011

• Call for Entries: 2011 Association of Nigerian Authors Literary Prizes -03/31/2011
  


• Call for Entries: Nigeria Prize for Literature 2011 -03/31/2011

• The Beverly Nambozo Poetry Award 2011 (Uganda) Now Open for Submissions -03/31/2011
  

Professional Writers Kenya, an academic research and writing company based in Nairobi, is in search of freelance academic writers to research on the internet and produce well-written and accurate academic essays within strict deadlines.

QUALIFICATIONS/ REQUIREMENTS

* University degree preferable, particularly in English, Literature, Journalism or Mass Communication. Diploma holders with excellent writing skills will however be considered
* Experience of writing, preferably in academic writing, content writing, article writing among others
* Excellent writing and grammatical skills
* Ability to provide essays that are free of plagiarism
* Internet savvy
* Ability to meet strict deadlines
* Access to own computer and internet

Desirable personal qualities

* Self-motivated and proactive
* Resilient
* Flexible and adaptable
* Ability to work outside the team / office environment
* Quick-learner
* Thorough with good attention to detail
* Enthusiastic

To apply, please send us two samples of academic writing that you have done before and write a 500 word Harvard style essay on plagiarism to professionalwriterskenya@gmail.com