The Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) has announced the five writers from across Africa selected to be in residence at the LOATAD centre in Accra, Ghana, this November for the AU20 “Our Africa, Our Future” writing residency, in partnership with the African Union, the UNDP, and Africa No Filter.

The five residents were selected from an “overwhelming number of applications” from across the African continent. The selected writers are described as “represent(ing) the best of African literary talent as well as the literary future.”

They are:

Nour Kamel (Egypt)

Nour writes about identity, language, sexuality, queerness, gender, oppression, femininity, trauma, family, lineage, globalisation, loss and food. She is the author of the chapbook “Noon,” in New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Sita).

TJ Benson (Nigeria)

Benson’s writing explores the body in the context of memory, migration, utopia, and the unconscious self. His works have been exhibited, published in several journals, and shortlisted for awards. The author of three novels, his latest, People Live Here, is out now.

Musih Tedji Xaviere (Cameroon)

Xaviere is a writer, activist, and Moth Storyteller. Her debut novel, These Letters End in Tears, won the 2021 Pontas and JJ Bola Emerging Writer’s Prize. It will be published in the US and UK in 2024 by Catapult and Jacaranda Books.

Tony Mochama (Kenya)

Mochama is a poet, author, and senior journalist at The Nation Media Group. He is a three-time winner of the Burt Awards for African Young Adult Literature and is a recipient of the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship. His futuristic novel, 2063 – Last Mile Bet, was published by Oxford University Press.

Sue Nyathi (South Africa)

Nyathi is the author of four novels, her latest, An Angel’s Demise, published in October by Pan Macmillan. A Zimbabwean based in South Africa, she was longlisted for the 2020 Dublin Literary Award and is a JIAS Fellow 2022.

Congratulations to the residents!