Ugandan writer and poet Mildred Barya has been selected as the 2015 winner of the Sylt Foundation African Writer’s Residency Award.
Bayrya’s technical proficiency and extraordinary ability to infuse the English language with a “distinctively non-English imagination”, according to a prestigious jury comprising Nigerian writer Helon Habila, incumbent winner and fellow writer Nii Parkes of Ghana and literary scholar and writer Katharina Fink of the University of Bayreuth in Germany, earned her the nod against an impressive list of strong contenders from 12 African countries.
The South African writers shortlisted where SJ Naudé, Masande Nthshanga, Hans Pienaar and Nobantu Shabangu.
“I’m honored to have won this award and I look forward to working on my project for two good months in such a lovely and inspiring place,” Barya said.
Barya, who is working towards her doctorate in English Literature and teaching at the University of Denver, will take up her creative residency at the Sylt Foundation´s headquarters on the island of Sylt in 2016.
During her stay she will complete the proposed literary project exploring traveling and identity which she submitted as part of her winning submission. Her creative proposal which is a key component of the jury’s final decision, was described very contemporary and relevant to the African diaspora.
The Sylt Foundation’s African Writer´s Residency Award (AWRA) is a creative residency awarded annually to writers of contemporary African literature. Previous winners included Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe in 2013 and Ghanaian writer and poet Nii Parkes in 2014.
The award provides a two month-long subsidised stay to writers of contemporary African literature who engage with current themes and concerns related to Africa and the African diaspora. The award is open to published writers of poetry, prose, plays and novels.
For this week’s edition of Fiction Friday we give you two short stories by Barya and a link to her website where you can read some of her poems.
Read “Black Stone”, published in Per Contra, “Bless the Broken Path”, published in Northeast Review, and “Borderless Africa” from her anthology Give Me Room to Move My Feet:
Black Stone
Nyana Promise leans against the camp wall a few feet away from the maimed old women. Two lines of tears trek down her young face and she licks them when they arrive above her lips. She makes no sound. But there she is with wet eyes and a fisted hand concealing a black stone.
Other children do not call Nyana by name. They know her as the lone one, like the single mushroom growing behind an amputated tree. Women are afraid to use the mushroom for soup because mushrooms are supposed to grow in clusters.
Nyana goes to the children, thinking she should say goodbye. She wants to die. As usual, little Margo’s nose is running. Her navy-blue dress is clean but probably will not survive three more washings. Nyana lifts the hem and cleans up Margo’s nose. Margo thanks her and Nyana wants to tell her she can do it herself, it takes no effort, but she says nothing. Besides it’s not even true; everything requires effort.
Bless the Broken Path
I’m restless, fixing myself a second cup of coffee, feeling no desire to pick up a brush and paint. So I read The Daily Monitor from the first page to the last. Normally, I skip the Sports page because I’m never interested. Now, The Cranes—our soccer team—has beaten South Africa’s 3-1. The Heathens, our rugby team, after triumphs over Kenya, has scored 51 points versus South Africa’s 44, in the International World Rugby Cup, and will proceed to play against New Zealand, and then Italy. I realize the young coach, Mutamba Davis, was in my political science study group at Makerere University. His eyes always smiling, I didn’t think of him as particularly competitive. Now I see from his photo the poise of challenge, the muscular body slightly leaning in, hands gripping the ball, left foot forward, ready to run.
Borderless Africa
He says
We are a continuous stream
Not a classification
There isn’t a you, me or the other
We are us.Borderless Africa
Borderless Africa.They say
Before time began
We were,
Now the cord is broken,
Dismembered from the source.Borderless Africa,
Borderless Africa,
Flow,
Connect us again
We cry for you.
Book details
- Men Love Chocolates but They Don’t Say by Mildred Barya
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EAN: 9789970988808
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- The Price Of Memory by Mildred Barya
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EAN: 9781856571029
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- Give Me Room to Move My Feet by Mildred Barya
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EAN: 9782359260014
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Images courtesy of Sylt Foundation