MOVIE ALERT: THE OFFICIAL TRAILER TO 'GIDI BLUES' A FILM BY FEMI ODUGBEMI

The official trailer of the star studded and entertaining movie "Gidi Blues" is here.

Produced and directed by Femi Odugbemi, the movie stars Gideon Okeke, Hauwa Allahbura, Lepacious Bose, Daniel Lloyd, Nancy Isime, Bukky Wright, Tina Mba, Segun Obadare-Akpata, Toyin Oshinaike, William Ekpo among others.

Akin is an indulged playboy from an affluent family who accidentally meets an interesting beauty in an unpredictable place.

Nkem is a beautiful, confident but unusual young lady who devotes herself to her work as a community volunteer in the belly of the city’s worst slum.

Their encounter drags Akin into a whirlwind experience that unravels his world.

Have a look at the trailer of the much anticipated movie-

The movie also features cameos by Banky W and Aduke. Odugbemi is popular for "Tinsel," "Abobaku" among others.

Call For Submissions: Hemingway Shorts

The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park is pleased to announce a new and exciting venture which seeks to promote new creative writing, and is designed especially to capture new voices engaged in the creative writing process, in fiction. The series called HEMINGWAY SHORTS seeks to utilize impetus from the famous author toward sparking energized new interest in the writing craft, and, most importantly, to open the process to entirely new writers, especially those who have never before thought they might write publishable pieces of work. Help will be provided new authors in shaping their work for entry into this new and exciting venture. Since this publication dovetails with the International Hemingway conference being held in Oak Park this year, it is hoped that attendees will be encouraged to submit work.

Submission Guidelines:

Each applicant must submit their work electronically through the EHFOP website. Applicants are required to provide (a) submission title; (b) name of author; (c) address; (d) phone number; (e) e-mail.

To submit your story, CLICK HERE.

Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2016, and submissions should not exceed 1500 words in length. Work must not be previously published.

Judging:

Judging of the submitted pieces will be done by a team composed of individuals who have held the prestigious title of Writer In Residence at the Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, with the Writer-In-Residence at the EHFOP for this year, David Berner, serving as Chair. A member of the EHFOP Board will also be a member of the group.

Publication:

Submissions deemed to have met the standards set by the judges will be selected for publication in the first edition of this new on-line/ paper journal HEMINGWAY SHORTS, with publication date to coincide with the Hemingway Birthday celebrations on July 23, 2016 at the Oak Park Public Library.

Monetary Award:

A monetary award of $500.00 will attach to the entry judged the best among the submissions for HEMINGWAY SHORTS.

Culled from Ernest Hemingway Foundation website

CALL FOR SUBMISSION: IBPF POETRY MENTORSHIP/RESIDENCY PROGRAMME

This is to invite interested poets to apply for the first IBPF Poetry Workshop. The Workshop is specifically for the upcoming and potential Nigerian writer who desires to be mentored by an established poet.

The mentorship programme is an 8-week workshop via virtual interaction including email exchanges between mentor-poet and mentee-poet. This interaction will lead to an invitation to a Residency in Ibadan, for selected poets who fulfil communicated objectives in the course of their mentorship programme.

We welcome applications from all interested poets, including beginners and others with publishing history seeking further competence in the art. The main requirement to participation is an evidence of considerable commitment to form/presentation.

The first IBPF Poetry Workshop would begin on 12 June 2016, and we are encouraging YOU to apply.

Submit 5 poems with a brief note on why you think you should be a part of this workshop. Please note that what we seek is promise, not perfection.

Please add a professional biography including publications, degrees, and some relevant personal information, and the poets you admire, if applicable.

Deadline for submissions is May 2, 2016, 12PM GMT.

List of selected poets would be announced on this website.

For more information, send an email to ibadanpoetryfoundation@gmail.com

Culled from Ibadan Poetry Foundation

Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction Announces 2016 Shortlist

Now in its twenty first year, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women from throughout the world. We’re delighted to announce this year’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist, featuring one previously shortlisted author and three debut novels.

“After a long and often passionate debate we are proud to present our 2016 shortlist,” said Margaret Mountford, Chair of judges. “Our choices reflect a really diverse mix of brilliant writing from new and established authors around the world and we hope that everyone will find much to enjoy in them.”

The shortlisted books are as follows:

Cynthia Bond: Ruby
Anne Enright: The Green Road
Lisa McInerney: The Glorious Heresies
Elizabeth McKenzie: The Portable Veblen
Hannah Rothschild: The Improbability of Love
Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life

To stay in the loop about this year’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and for a chance to win the shortlist, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Culled from Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

Entries Open for African Folktale Contest by Brittle Paper

Here is a literary project worth checking out. It is a writing contest that gives you the chance to re-write, update, reinvent, re-imagine African folktales for a contemporary audience. The contest comes with opportunity to get published in an anthology. Some of the best minds in African literature are backing the project—Chuma Nwokolo, Okey Ndibe, Maimouna Jallow, and Lizzy Attree, who are all serving as judges.

Entries are currently open, so start writing! Keep in mind that the deadline is May 20.

Contact the organizers here.

Here is more info about the contest.

Re-imagined! is a global online storytelling contest inviting African writers, poets, playwrights and journalists to re-invent and update the African folktale for a new millennium.

In keeping with the tradition of African folk tales, the challenge is to develop new narratives that speak of issues that are fundamental to Africa’s development – from corruption, to environmental degradation and religious radicalization – in a way that is unconventional but true to our past traditions of folktale and oral storytelling.

The stories should contain life lessons that are relevant for both young and old, however writers are invited to be as inventive and disruptive as they wish in terms of theme, form, language, characters, imagery and context.

Whilst the first edition of the contest will cater only for those writing in English, subsequent editions will seek to promote entries in African languages, as well as in French, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic.

The aims of the contest are multiple:

• To revive the rapidly dying age-old tradition of sharing wisdom through stories by re-adapting them for a modern context
• To create more opportunities for African writers to get published
• To contribute to a modern archive of stories by Africans writers
• To influence public debate and include alternative voices to the traditional news agenda through stories that tackles issues critical to African development
• To make available the stories to as broad an audience as possible through both traditional and new media platforms
• To invite storytellers to perform the stories on stage, in schools and in communities across the world
• To train teachers on storytelling techniques
• To find new ways of encouraging communities to talk through difficult issues and heal trauma through the use of storytelling
• To create a video archive of the storytelling performances

A NEW ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN AFRICAN TALES

Following a two-month entry period, an editorial panel, headed by Nigerian author Chuma Nwokolo, will select the top twenty five entries, which will then be:

1. Published in the first ever Illustrated Anthology on Modern African Folktales.
2. Serialised in several newspapers around the continent

STORYTELLING PERFORMANCES

A key component of the Re-Imagined contest is reviving African storytelling customs. Storytellers will perform the stories selected for the anthology across the continent in schools, literary festivals and communities. The stories will also be used as part of an art therapy programme as a way to understand and help communities resolve the deep divisions that are at the root of modern day conflicts and social unrest and inequalities. By creating safe spaces that use a traditional art form that is familiar across communities in Africa, stories can help communities not only reclaim the stories of their pasts, but also to heal traumas and re-imagine their futures.

For more information, click here.

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Brittle Paper is not responsible for the organization or further promotion of this contest, neither do we have a stake in its popularity. Address any inquiry to the contact included in the post. 

Culled from-  Brittle Paper

Farafina Trust Announces 2016 Creative Writing Workshop

Farafina Trust will be holding a creative writing workshop in Lagos, organized by award-winning writer and creative director of Farafina Trust, Chimamanda Adichie, from June 21 to July 1, 2016. The workshop is sponsored by Nigerian Breweries Plc. The Caine Prize-winning Kenyan writer, Binyavanga Wainaina, Aslak Sira Myhre and others will co-teach the workshop alongside Adichie.

The workshop will take the form of a class. Participants will be assigned a wide range of reading exercises, as well as daily writing exercises. The aim of the workshop is to improve the craft of writers and to encourage published and unpublished writers by bringing different perspective to the art of storytelling.

Participation is limited only to those who apply and are accepted.

To apply, send an e-mail to udonandu2016@gmail.com. Your e-mail subject should read ‘Workshop Application’. The body of the e-mail should contain the following:

1.Your Name2. Your Address3. A few sentences about yourself4. A writing sample of between 200 and 800 words. The sample must be either fiction or non-fiction.

All material must be pasted or written in the body of the e-mail. Please DO NOT include any attachments in your e-mail. Applications with attachments will be automatically disqualified.

Deadline for submission is May 20, 2016. Only those accepted to the workshop will be notified by June 10, 2016. Accommodation in Lagos will be provided for all accepted applicants who are able to attend for the ten-day duration of the workshop. A literary evening of readings, open to the public, will be held at the end of the workshop on July 1, 2016.

Culled from- https://farafinabooks.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/2016-farafina-trust-creative-writing-workshop/

Saraba Call for Submissions—”Power” and “Money”

Saraba Magazine welcomes submissions for 2016.

Saraba will explore the theme of “Power” for its nineteenth issue, and the theme of “Money” for its twentieth issue.  

Issue 19: POWER

Power is everywhere, diffused and embodied. What is Power? Where is Power? How does Power work? How is Power used? In this issue, we will present creative propositions on power, seeking to understand how as Nigerians and Africans we bend it, fall to it, corrupt and uncorrupt it.

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Issue 20: MONEY

There is constant need to think about money. Poor or rich, neoliberal or democratic socialist, PDP or APC, father or daughter, mother or son, parent or divorcee, urbane or peasant, what or whatnot. In Nigeria the dollar-naira exchange rate was at all-time low in early 2016. Money, basic for sustenance, yet unevenly distributed. We invite writers of all genres to think with us about money. “…best revenge is your paper,” is one famous song of 2016.

Include the issue you wish to be considered for in a cover note, addressed to our managing editor, along with a brief biography. Before submitting, read our general submission guidelines, which includes details on word count, response time, and payment policy.

Only submit via Submittable. 

Deadline for Submission: May 15, 2016.

Culled from- Saraba Magazine

Commencement Rites at the Tree of Creativity: A Series of Three Lectures

Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian poet and playwright, will deliver the 2016 Toni Morrison Lectures

Presenters: 

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka

The series of three talks Wole Soyinka has named ‘Commencement Rites at the Tree of Creativity,’ will occur April 18th, 19th, and 20th at 5:30 p.m. each day.

April 18th
‘In Praise – and Dread – of Trees’
Introduction by Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu
April 19th
‘Sweet are the Uses of Diversity’Introduction by Professor Simon Gikandi

April 20th
‘As It Was in the Beginning’Introduction by Professor Wendy Laura Belcher

The Toni Morrison Lectures are sponsored by the Department of African American Studies and Princeton University Press. The lectures are held annually and spotlight the new and exciting work of scholars and writers who have risen to positions of prominence both in academe and in the broader world of letters.

The lectures are published in book form by Princeton University Press and celebrate the expansive literary imagination, intellectual adventurousness and political insightfulness that characterize the writing of Toni Morrison.

Learn more about the Toni Morrison Lectures and watch video of previous lectures.

Culled from http://aas.princeton.edu/event/wole-soyinka-lectures-at-princeton-university/