Abdulrahman “Abu Amirah” Ndegwa is the winner of the African Writers Trust Publishing Fellowship.
The African Writers Trust was founded to bring together African writers in the Diaspora and on the continent to promote the sharing of skills and other resources. Some of the activities of the organisation founded in 2009 by Goretti Kyomuhendo include hosting events like the Uganda International Writers Conference (in 2005 and in 2017) and workshops to teach writers and those in the profession.
In November 2018, The African Writers Trust hosted a mentoring and training workshop moderated by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Demere Kitunga, and Catherine Mark. The workshop, aimed at developing and chart learning experiences, and strengthen on-going projects, had participants from across the East African region.
At the end of the workshop, the participants were invited to make an application for seed funding where a winning manuscript (project) would receive €4,000 (approximately USD 4,500) to produce a model publication that adheres to international publishing standards.
The African Writers Trust announced the winner of the competition Abdulrahman “Abu Amirah” Ndegwa on December 20, 2018. Ndegwa is a Mombasa-based writer, publisher and founding editor of Hekaya Arts Initiative, an online platform that publishes stories from The Swahili Coast. His project is to have writers from at least 11 locations on The Swahili Coast contribute to a flowing story; one in English and the other in Kiswahili.
