Call for Submissions for the Second Regional Women Writers’ Residence.

In 2008 FEMRITE - Uganda Women Writers Association initiated a new and

exciting project, Regional Women Writers’ Residence.

FEMRITE is an indigenous Non-Governmental Organisation that promotes

women writers. The organisation which was founded by a small group of
Ugandan women aims at creating an enabling atmosphere for women to write
and publish their stories.

While Africa boasts of a rich literary tradition, there has, in the past, been a
general absence of women writers and this has resulted into an omission of
women’s experiences from African literary and cultural heritages. In Uganda for
example, before FEMRITE came into being, the literary landscape was
dominated by male writers. This was as a result of socio-political and historical
factors beyond women’s control. For instance, in almost all African countries, it
was men who went to school first and so it was that they were the first to master
the art of writing. Most women organizations have come up to give women
support and bring them to equal footing with male writers.

Recently, FEMRITE embarked on a re-strategising process to strengthen her

capacity and to build a more sustainable women writers’ movement in Uganda. In
the process however, it was discovered that for a stronger movement, there was
need to reach out to other women writers groups across Africa, to seek their
support and sisterhood. FEMRITE’s main strategy in reaching out to other
women writers from across the continent was to create a sense of belonging for
African Women writers groups; a sense of belonging that would inspire women to
write and to support one another with a common goal of growing women’s
literature across Africa.

Since one of the major hindrances to most African women’s creative potential is
limited conducive writing space, FEMRITE thought it fit to come up with a
programme that would offer such space to women. Since 1996, FEMRITE has
always offered training to Ugandan women writers but FEMRITE saw the need
for cultural integration as one of the ways of enriching the women’s creative
writing processes. That was the point at which the idea of a Regional Writers
Residence, exclusively for African women, was born.

The first residence was held in November 2008 in Kampala. It was facilitated by
Dr Helen Moffet, a renowned published writer and Editor from South Africa and it
was attended by women writers from 8 countries: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania,
Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The major output of the
residence was a short story anthology titled Pumpkin Seeds. The success of the
first residence gave FEMRITE the energy to continue the programme and
strengthen it further.

Women Writers’ Residence November 2010

FEMRITE, in partnership with Karavan Literary Journal- Sweeden, and other
development partners will run the Second Regional Women Writers’ Residence
in November 2010. The residence will be held in one of Uganda’s most exciting
and inspiring areas, the Source of the River Nile. The main aim of the residence
will be to give women space and time to write and to strengthen collaboration
between women writers’ associations in Africa. The focus of the residence will be
development of a novel. Participants therefore are required to have interest in
novel writing.
Major requirements for those interested:
• They should already have a novel that they are working on and they need
a mentor to work with in order to move forward.
• Already published novelists who do not have more than one book

Interested women writers are therefore encouraged to submit their manuscripts

that they would like to work on during the residence.
• The manuscript must be typed
Number of Pages to submit: 20 - 25 pages (Part of a novel)
Font: Times New Roman; 12pts,
Spacing: 1.5)
• The manuscript must be previously unpublished work
• Submissions must be original works from emerging writers
• Manuscripts of poetry and short stories will not be considered
• Children fiction will not be considered
• This call is open to Ugandan women living in Uganda, Kenyan women are
members of PEN International - Kenya Chapter, Zimbabwe Women
Writers’ Association, Tanzania Women Writers’ Association, Ghana
Women Writers’ Association, Ethiopia Women Writers’ Association,
Zambia Women Writers’ Association. In addition, Women from Swaziland,
Botswana, South Africa and Rwanda will also be considered after
consultations with existing partners.

• Deadline for submissions is 30th April 2010. Manuscripts received

after this date will not be acknowledged

Please Note:
1. A panel of Ugandan and Swedish tutors will make the final decision on who
gets on the residency and all applicants will be informed of the results by
email.
2. The Residence targets 12 writers
3. The Residence will last two weeks in November 2010
4. There will be tutors from Sweden and Uganda to facilitate the residence
5. Manuscripts will not be returned to the applicants.
6. All writers in residence will be required to write and submit a short story
that will be published in a regional anthology.

Wishing you all the best as we work together to forge a way forward to widen
space for the growth of African women’s literary voices.

Please send your submissions by email to <info@femriteug.org>, attached

as a WORD document.