Abuja Writers Forum spotlights Amuneni, Ogbere and Onwualu

The spotlight of the September  Guest Writer Session will focus on Bash Amuneni, Louis Ogbere and Chinelo Onwualu, this Saturday in Abuja.

Basiru Sunday Amuneni (Bash) has his first degree in Architecture and holds a Masters Degree in Facilities Management. He is an essayist, performance poet, and has eight years experience in a top Nigerian bank. He is the Co-editor of ‘Through the Eyes of Innocence’ – a collection of poetry written by children under the age of 15. The compilation captures their honest and naïve thoughts on the Nigerian situation.

Bash’s  first spoken word album, entitled, Freedom was launched in September, 2015. The body of work is laced in love, intimacy, folklore and the human condition. It also contains hard contents that jab at the economic and political conscience of Nigeria. Bash is a TEDx speaker and has performed at various platforms around the country. He has recently been invited alongside 35 poets and writers across Africa as a guest at the Lagos International Poetry Festival scheduled for October, 2016.

He has contributed his poems to some national dailies and international magazines. He is a member of the Abuja Literary Society (ALS) and one of the figures behind the Open Mic Movement- Freedom Hall Nigeria, which supports poetry and alternative music. He loves to draw and paint in his free time. He is currently working on his first publication of poems titled – “There is a lunatic in every town”.

Louis Ogbere was born in Asaba, Nigeria in the mid ‘80s and holds a B.Sc in Banking and Finance from Madonna University, Okija. While in school, he developed a passion for writing and published his first work of literature: two poems in the Vanguard Newspaper in 2009. His subsequent work, mostly short fiction have been published in online and print magazines in Nigeria, South Africa and the UK, among them, The New Black Magazine, ITCH, StoryTime and Worldreader.

His latest work, the short story, Were explores the themes of motherhood, mental illness and superstition. The story was longlisted for the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Prize and is collected in the anthology, Water: New Short Fiction from Africa.

The organisers of the Short Story Day Africa have this to say about Louis’writing:“…The characters sketches, language and dialogue are sharp and lively…We think Louis, with his sparky dialogue, is one to watch.”

Ogbere describes himself as a gastronaunt and an introvert. He is currently working on a collection of short stories. He is a member of Abuja Writers Forum (AWF) and Highlands and Islands Short Story Association (HISSAC).

Chinelo Onwualu is an editorial consultant living in Abuja, Nigeria. She is a graduate of the 2014 Clarion West Writers Workshop, which she attended as the recipient of the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship. She is editor and co-founder of Omenana, a magazine of African speculative fiction. Her writing has appeared in several places, including Strange Horizons, The Kalahari Review, Saraba, Brittle Paper, Jungle Jim, Ideomancer, and the anthologies, AfroSF: African Science Fiction by African Writers, Mothership: Tales of Afrofuturism and Beyond, Terra Incognita: New Short Speculative Stories from Africa, and Imagine Africa 500. She has been longlisted for the British Science Fiction Awards and the Short Story Day Africa Award.

The Guest Writer Session, an initiative of the Abuja Writers Forum, started in June 2008 and is in its eighth year. It is a platform for promoting both upcoming and established writers, while enabling direct and immediate interaction with a live audience. Each edition features live music and a raffle-draw for books.