African Voices in Edinburgh
On 28th September, I read at the launch of the latest edition of the Edinburgh Review (118), Voices of Africa. Amongst other things it was a celebration of a fabulous project called Crossing Borders, http://www.crossingborders-africanwriting.org/ funded by the British Council and administered by Lancaster University, which paired writers in a number of African writers with established writers in the UK in mentoring relationships by email between 2003 and 2006. I was one of the mentors on this scheme, learnt a great deal from it, and travelled to Kenya to run a week-long workshop with writers in Nairobi in 2005. Edited by Brian McCabe, another CB mentor, this edition is a rich collection of stories, essays and poetry by African writers or European writers in response to African experiences. At the event, Zimbabwean writer, Gabriel Gidi (pictured with Brian McCabe) read from his wonderful satirical story, Dear Honourable Member. Well worth a look. http://www.edinburghreview.org.uk/