Widening Access to African Literatures

Thursday 28th April 2022 | 11:00-12:30 | Online (zoom)

Vimbai Shire, Zaahida Nabagereka and Olivia Danso

Moderated by Frank Sayi

Vimbai Shire, Zaahida Nabagereka and Olivia Danso discuss the importance of widening access to African Literatures in UK secondary schools and higher education and the Caine Prize's impact on the UK literary scene for writers from Africa and of African descent.

Vimbai Shire is an independent editor and founder of Beyond White Space Ltd, a publishing services company that provides training, editorial and design expertise and project management to publishers, businesses, institutions and individuals. In addition, she has edited, copy-edited and/or proofread hundreds of titles, many of which include short-form fiction and non-fiction by African writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Brian Chikwava, Aminatta Forna, Billy Kahora and the late Binyavanga Wainaina, among others. Recent editorial projects of note have included work with Leila Aboulela on her novel Bird Summons, copy-editing Lemn Sissay’s memoir My Name is Why and early edits on Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s highly acclaimed new novel, The First Woman. Vimbai has recently been a mentor and skills coach to nineteen young apprentices who are part of the UK’s first L.3 Publishing Apprenticeship programme, a scheme to which she also provides strategic content development and delivery.

Zaahida Nabagereka is the Lit in Colour programme manager at Penguin Random house. Lit in Colour was created in 2020 by Penguin Books UK and equality think tank The Runnymede Trust. Their aim was to find innovative and practical ways to give schools the support and tools they need to introduce more books by people of colour into the classroom, for all ages. Zaahida is also the co-founder of Afrikult., a London- based platform that seeks to celebrate, promote and discuss African literature. Zaahida's PhD from SOAS focused on literary production in Luganda, Uganda.

Olivia Danso is the Education Programme Manager for the Poetry in the Primary Classroom Project. She has been a Project Manager in London and Melbourne, working across the government, charity, education and arts industries for over a decade. She works with Blueprinted, an organisation created to improve racial diversity in communications and PR, and in 2019 she launched and ran the BookTrust Represents project, supporting and promoting British children’s authors and illustrators of colour. She also uses her Ghanaian name to write fiction as Maame Blue, and in June 2020 her debut novel ‘Bad Love’ was published by Jacaranda Books

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TCW | Widening Access to African Literatures