This open call is an opportunity for writers in West Africa to enjoy a one-month writer’s residency in Accra, Ghana.
Interested writers have until 6 August 2023 to apply to the LOATAD’s 2023 West African Writers Residency programme.
LOATAD (The Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora) is located in the Greater Accra area of Ghana.
Selected candidates will spend one month in Ghana, between August and December 2023, to work on a longform writing project.
LOATAD will cover all costs associated with the residency, including travel to and from Ghana.
Organizers said they are looking for “talented writers with a radical literary vision whose work has the potential to disrupt and upend literary tropes about Africa.
“We are particularly interested in writers who are pushing the boundaries of storytelling, and are working in areas that are underrepresented in contemporary African literature.”
The areas of interest include “Africanfuturism, nature writing, folktales/folklore, narrative nonfiction, literary criticism, etc. “
The 2023 edition is the second of the residency programme for writers who are citizens or live in any one of 16 West African countries.
About LOATAD
The Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora (LOATAD) is a private library in Accra, Ghana, founded in 2017 under the name, Libreria Ghana, by Sylvia Arthur.
Her goal was to give local people access to contemporary, culturally-relevant literature not easily available in Ghana. The majority of the 1,300 books in her collection that she donated to the library were by writers of African descent.
Libreria attracted significant national and international attention, outgrew itself and in 2020 rebranded as the Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora.
It currently occupies a bigger space that hosts a special collections/archive room, a screening room and extensive outdoor event space.
LOATAD focuses on books by writers of African descent including African, African American, Caribbean, Black European, Afro-Latin, and Indigenous writers. The library has over 4000 volumes of literary fiction and narrative nonfiction dating from the early 20th century to the present day.
LOATAD’s collection represents the “rich diversity of the African continent and its vast Diasporas.
“Since its inception, the library’s mission has evolved to help address the serious literacy challenges that many across the country and the continent face. We believe in literacy and literature for all, and we strive to make both accessible regardless of geographic location, gender, age, disability, or religious or sexual orientation.”
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