A Call for Entries to the writers' workshops!

Hello there, aspiring writers!

Do you know that there's one perfect place to hone in on your skills for FREE?

Entries for the 6^th edition of the annual Port Harcourt Book Festival (PHBF) – formerly the Garden City Literary Festival – Writers’ Workshops are now being accepted. The Writers’ Workshops are a creative platform wherein aspiring writers sit under the tutelage of their established counterparts. The workshops are recommended for all who desire to improve on their writing skills.

Each applicant must indicate his/her preferred workshop choice. Applications to more than one class will not be considered. Participants are required to submit samples of their writing (in line with the requirements for the different genres) before Friday, Sep. 13^th, 2013 to secure a place.

All applicants must submit the following:

FOR SHORT STORIES –

·         A sample short story of between 1000 & 1500 words. Send in only your best story.*

FOR POETRY –

·         2 poems of between 20 and 30 lines. A synopsis or abstract will not be accepted.*

FOR SCRIPT –

·         A synopsis of not more than 1000 words.* Indicate the genre of your choice e.g. ‘Comedy’

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

1.      Submit a one-page personal CV along with each entry

2.      Include a brief paragraph about what you intend to learn from your selected workshop

3.      Type all manuscripts, double-spaced, with a header showing the author name (yours) to the left, story title in the middle and page numbers to the right

4.      Ensure that your entry is original

5.      Handwritten entries will not be accepted

All sample materials must be submitted to http://www.portharcourtbookfestival.com/index.php/workshop no later than 12:00 noon on Friday, 13^thSeptember 2013. Materials submitted after this date will not be accepted.

* please highlight how many words your story/poem/script contains

Peter Drucker Challenge 2013

Introduced in 2010, the Drucker Challenge was conceived as an essay contest to raise awareness of the works and ideas of Peter Drucker among young people – the new generation poised to build on a management philosophy that puts the human being at its center.

In 2013 we are expanding the Drucker Challenge with a new option: The Drucker Challenge Video Contest. Our hope is that submissions in this lively format will bring a fresh infusion of energy and inspiration, and new clarity to what can be complex and abstract concepts.

Participants in the Challenge can now choose to submit either an essay or a video – or both, to maximize their chances of winning.

Prizes are awarded to the best 40 entries, including a cash prize of EUR 1,000 to the first-prize winners in the essay respectively video contest. The overall winner in the essay and video contest is awarded a cash price of EUR 4,000.

Both contests are designed to complement and enrich the interdisciplinary exchange of views and ideas at the annual Global Peter Drucker Forum. This year's event in Vienna (14-15 Nov 2013) focuses on the theme of Managing Complexity.

Deadline: July 1, 2013

Learn more about the video competition

Learn more about the essay competition

UNESCO: Call for Proposals on Promoting Culture

UNESCO is now accepting proposals for the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD). The IFCD is a multi-donor fund that aims to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction in developing and least-developed countries that are Parties to the 2005 Convention. It does this through support to projects that aim to foster the emergence of a dynamic cultural sector.

Selection Criteria

Applications for funding requests to the IFCD will be evaluated on the basis of criteria established by the Intergovernmental Committee and the Conference of Parties on the use of resources of the IFCD. In particular, how the funding request:

addresses the objectives and priorities of the 2005 Convention and the IFCD;

meets the needs and priorities of the country where the project will be implemented and it is deemed to be feasible and relevant;

contributes to achieving concrete, measurable and realistic results;

has a potential structural impact leading to the emergence of a dynamic cultural sector and on the promotion of South-South and North-South-South cooperation;

ensures that the project’s long-term objectives can be met;

satisfies the principle of financial accountability.

Note

Applicants are to consult their National Commissions for UNESCO for their submission deadline at the national level.

The deadline for the Secretariat of the Convention to receive funding applications from National Commissions or INGOs is 30 June 2013.

More information here

Fellowship: Norman Mailer Center

The Center and the Colony offers Fellowships for fiction, nonfiction and poetry writers during the second half of 2013. During a Fellowship period of three weeks, the mentoring faculty will be headed by three highly regarded writers. Greg Curtis will mentor Nonfiction, Meena Alexander, Poetry, and Jeffery Renard Allen the Fiction fellows, each of whom will be in residence.

The Colony’s fellowships are designed to facilitate a balance between a focus on individual work and a forum for discussion among emerging writers. Each year the fellowship program will be held at a location where Norman Mailer researched and began writing one of his books.  One Year, as an example, the fellowship program will be held in Utah whereThe Executioner's Song was researched.  In another year, the fellows will meet in Palm Springs, where Mailer researched The Deer Park.  In a third year the fellowship program will be held in Miami, where Mailer began his book Miami and the Siege of Chicago.

This year, 2013, from July 20 to August 10, Michael Mailer will host the Center's fellowship programs at Norman's home in Brooklyn Heights, New York. This is where Mailer lived for over 40 years and wrote many of his books. Afternoon readings and meetings in the evenings are scheduled in Mailer's living room -- in the very environment that Mailer himself experienced.  J. Michael Lennon, Mailer's offical biographer, will discuss Mailer's 1951 novel, Barbary Shore  (which is set in Brooklyn Heights), and provide the fellows with a walking tour of the area. In addition, attendees to become acquainted with the work of other Fellows and friendships established among writers in-residence often lead to collaborations and connections beyond the Colony.

In addition distinguished writers will from time to time, visit and share their professional experiences with the Fellows. Past years visitors have included Gay Talese, Da Chen, David Margolick, Sonia Sanchez, Don DeLillo, and editors from the New York Review of Books, Playboy and Vanity Fair,

Four applicants each from fiction, nonfiction and poetry, based on merit, will be chosen for this program. Each successful Fellow's award will cover full tuition and housing for the entire three week period of residency. 

More information here

Favourite Five: Tracy Osokolo

Tracy Nneka Osokolo is a literary fellow of the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She has been awarded a literary residency at the Village Institute in India and granted a Colonel Farleigh S. Dickinson International Scholarship to attend the Farleigh Dickinson University, U.S.A. for an MFA in Creative Writing. At age 19, the Commonwealth sponsored “This is Lagos” a documentary about her life broadcast on British and Nigerian Television. Her short fiction has been published in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, India, the U.S. and the U.K. She was a Resident Writer at the London 2012 Olympics Festival at the Southbank Centre where Her Majesty the Queen is a Patron. Red Pepper and English Tea – ANBUKRAFT Winner for Best New Fiction is her first Novel. 

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I like Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina because of his main character -he explores a woman's life in such an interesting way. It seemed that there was no lie therein and he mirrored what it was like to be a woman yesterday and today.

Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor
I like Nnedi Okorafor's Zahrah the Wind Seeker because it celebrates 'difference' in a succinctly interesting way. I love what she did with Zarah's locks but most importantly her story will encourage children to have dreams and travel with their minds. The book is most perfect for my Children's Creative Writing Workshop in Lekki.

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed is a book that encouraged me to love and explore the life-long journey of loving myself along someone else. Its message is too honest and reading it made me feel that Elizabeth had my best interest at heart when she wrote that book for feminists like me.

Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire  by Murielle Guiliano
This book changed my life completely. It encouraged me to grow at a time when I was afraid to be the woman that I wanted to be. If I could meet Murielle in person, I would hug her and tell her "thank you for writing to me on how to be that woman and how to stay that woman."

Don Quixote by Cervantes

This is the most stupidly funny book I've ever read. Its main character entertained me too many times as a

teenager because I couldn't believe anybody alive would hold such silly views about himself, or of his world. Don Quixote reminds me of Julie in Tracy Osokolo's Red Pepper and English Tea--her naïve stupidity in life is so shocking that its hilarious.

Call for Submissions: Kalahari Review

The Kalahari Review is an African-eccentric magazine interested in material exploring Africa and Africans in unique and avant-garde ways. Telling new stories from everyday African life as told by the people that are living it. We are looking for stories that have not often been told but should be – through voices that have not yet been heard - but should.

We hope to push the limits and expose the world to aspects of Africa not often shown - both the positives and the negatives. We are interested in pieces about and from Africans living abroad as well.

Please take the time to enjoy the content on the site and get an understanding for what we publish before submitting.

Because this is a web-based publication there are no word count restrictions and no deadlines - we are always open to submissions.

More information on the Kalahari Review website. 

RBC's May Book of the Month

This month the Rainbow Book Club will review ‘From an Orphan to a Queen; Esther’ by Titi Horsfall. The book review which holds on 31st of May 2013 at Le Meridien Hotel pool side from 11.30am – 1.30pm. The readings are interactive and fun filled with a book signing session with the author.

Meet Titi Horsfall

Titi Horsfall is a novelist and poet. She works as a PR and Communications specialist in the oil and gas industry, (holding a bachelor’s degree in marketing, a masters degree in banking and finance, and an MBA in oil and gas management from the Robert Gordon University) her first book, Reflections is an approved recommended text in some secondary schools.

The Book

The book is a fictionalized account of the biblical heroine Esther. Author takes the reader on a historic journey of the Jewish people while in captivity and how their fate as a people comes to hinge on the obedience and courage of the young orphan girl, Esther.

The Rainbow Book Club is a leading advocate in promoting the reading culture and development of libraries in Nigeria. Her monthly readings and campaigns have played host to many award winning authors, including Caine Prize winner,  E. C Osondu, Oprah author, Uwem Akpan as well as role models who have read to children such as Gov Chibuike Amaechi, Rev Jesse Jackson, and Prof Oby Ezekweseli amongst others. 

Rainbow Book Club are the project managers of the Port Harcourt Book Festival formerly known as the Garden City Literary Festival and the Implementing Partner for Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014.

Book Club members and the general public are encouraged to buy and read the book, From an Orphan to a Queen; Esther, in preparation for the reading. Books are available for purchase at the RBC office, 20 Igbodo Street, Old G.R.A. Port Harcourt.

For all inquiries Please Call 08023187731 and visit our websites on www.rainbowbookclub.org; www.gardencitylieraryfestival.com; www.portharcourtworldbookcapital.org