Never Write Alone: Craft, Community and The Abebi AfroNonfiction Institute
It is the last day of the residency and all of us — our amazing winners and notable entries — are seated in a lush garden eating bread and eggs. I’m wearing an adire dress I obtained from my mother, its blue and white colors blazing bright in the morning sun. Immaculata, our very first winner of the Inaugural Abebi Award in AfroNonfiction is wearing a boubou streaked with red, orange, green and black. Next to her is Shalom, almost always dressed in black but the blonde gold of her low cut hair always bathes her in a radiance that can never hide. Janobest, with her quiet demeanor and sprawling afro giggles next to us and the baby of the group, Iruoma is wearing her NYSC uniform because she’s going straight from the residency to serve her country. All of us, united by this gift called writing, building bonds that will feed us for our entire lifetimes. When I, inspired by The Divine Creator, received the instruction to establish The Abebi AfroNonfiction Institute and Award, that sacred community building was at the heart of my call. And that is why although there are cash prizes, the biggest and most important part of the award to me remains the residency, two days to just be writers, to laugh and to cey, to create and rest, to find inspiration and encouragement in one another.
I have never written alone. Right from the beginning of my writing endeavors, as a sixteen year old girl deep in Osun State, my stories have always been tended to and grown by hands other than mine. First it was Mrs Emezue, my English teacher who asked me to write descriptive essays daily in preparation for my IGCSEs. She would look over them every day, pushing me to depict my imagination more clearly on the page. That year, I received the highest grades for First Language ENglish in the whole of Nigeria. Till this day, I am a heavily descriptive writer, committed to the distillation of my internal and external landscapes on the page. When I was writing poetry, Lanaire Aderemi and Ajoke Bodunde were my first group of primary readers. With their care and intentionality, they encouraged my poetic voice and eventually watched my metamorphosis into a prose writer. And when my essays started tumbling out of me, Ope Adedeji showed me the way, her masterclass being the birthplace of Abundant, one of my most powerful essays till this day. Two of these three phenomenal women are the judges for the 2024 Abebi Award in AfroNonfiction. I am saying all this to say that I have never written alone. The success and blooming of my writing and my mind has occurred by the love and devotion of women writing alongside me and this is exactly what is at the heart of TAANI and The Award. Most people don’t know but from a Toni Morrison documentary, I learnt that the short story that became her first novel, The Bluest Eye, began in a writing group she attended weekly. Even the legends bathed in the power of a writing community. We must do the same.
I am inviting Nigerian women writing creative nonfiction to abandon shame and hesitation and plunge headfirst into this rare and beautiful opportunity to weave a tapestry of community and craft that will water your words for years to come. Whether or not you worry that your essays are ‘serious’ enough, or whether you are even confused about whatever constitutes an essay, I invite you to look at my first ever published essay in Kalahari Review which were simply modified diary entries about a breakup. I write about love, about my mother, my sisters, my aunties, about heartbreak, about the deliciousness of moin moin and the flair of geles. I capture what I can see in the bustling world around me on the page because I believe in the beauty of this world, even as I navigate its complications and sorrows. Creative non fiction calls us to observe the world around us, and as women our eyes have already been doing this for as long as we can all remember. What are the images from your childhood that have never left you? What do you desire deep in the corridor of your heart? What does it feel like when you look into your mother’s face? I am looking to read personal essays that grapple with the joys, sorrows, myriads and complexities of being a Nigerian woman, whatever those may be to you.
I am writing this specifically to the young women who read my Medium, you who are writers and pen your thoughts. I want to read from you. DO not self-disqualify. Take a leap of faith and honor your writing. If you have ever submitted for or attended the Masterclasses, this applies even more to you. DO not bury your voice under the rubble of fear. Speak, and let us listen.
This is what Immaculata Abba, last year’s winner had to say about TAANI and The Award:
‘I’m really grateful to Fiyin and the Abebi Institute for organising this prize. I feel like my essay was waiting for her/the institute, in the sense that I can not imagine a better home/channel for the story I had to tell. The residency was also very helpful for me to get the wider dream I have for the story out of my head. It’s rare and precious to get to think in the company of women, and women who care about this writerly work at that. There’s a lot of noise such a space cuts through. It’s one of the proudest achievements of my life to date. Thank you again.’
The deadline is in twelve days. The submission guidelines are below and any questions can be asked in the comments here and I will respond to them ASAP. All through my life, both on the page off it, I am surrounded by and galvanized by powerful women. And that includes you. I look forward to reading your work.
Best,
Mofiyinfoluwa O.
Founder,
The Abebi AfroNonfiction Institute
Submission Guidelines
- The award is open to Nigerian women, 18 and above who were born in, grew up in, or have significant lived experience within and proximity to the country. We encourage entries from queer women.
- The award is open to writers who have not published a complete body of work (such as a memoir or a novel through a publishing house), and will not have done so by December 2024.
- All entries should be creative nonfiction: i.e. real life stories derived from true events from the writer’s life. We are not looking for academic, scholarly or purely journalistic essays. We believe in the revolutionary power of personal narrative and so we would love to read essays that delve deep into emotional interiorities, family relations, gendered expectations, patriarchal conditioning and triumph. This does not mean essays must be sad, or political but that they depict the complexities of what it is to move as a woman in this country/continent. You can see last year’s winning entries for model examples of the kind of work we’re looking for
- All entries should be within the range of 1,500–3,000 words in length
- Submissions should be made through the link found here.
- Submissions will open from the 1st of October 2024 at 9am WAT and close on the 1st of November 2024 at 6pm WAT.
- A winner will be announced in the second week of December, along with a runner up and three notable entries.
- The winner will be awarded N200,000 and the first runner up will be awarded N120,000. Each notable entry will receive N50,000.
- The winner, runner up and three notable entries will be invited to a two-day all expense paid writer’s residency in Lagos, in December. The residency will close with an award ceremony followed by a reading event to celebrate the winning writers. Further details will be released closer to the aforementioned time.
- If you have any questions, kindly reach out to us via email at abebiaward@gmail.com
- Kindly visit our webiste for further details (and to admire it because it really is SO pretty lol) https://theabebiinstitute.com/2024-edition
