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The New Gong will be holding a series of writers’ workshops over four
weekends. Led by Adewale Maja-Pearce, the former editor of the Heinemann
African Writers Series, the first will be held in March (6, 13, 20 and 27), the
second in April (3, 10, 17 and 24) and the third in May (8, 15, 22 and 29).
The workshops will concentrate on the art of the short story, a form which has
been greatly neglected by Nigerian writers but which, in its brevity and
precision of language, is a better discipline than the ragbag novel to hone the
writer’s craft.
The sessions will be interactive. Each participant will be required to come with
at least one short story they have written, which will then be analyzed in terms
of approach, dialogue, language and setting. The appropriateness of first-
person vs. third-person will also be discussed. In the course of each
workshop a selection of the world’s great short stories - photocopies of which
will be distributed beforehand - will be used as examples of how the ‘masters’
have achieved their varied effects. These will include, but not necessarily be
limited to: Anton Chekhov (‘The Lady with the Lapdog’), Guy de Maupassant
(‘Bertha’), Isaac Babel (‘My First Goose’), James Joyce (‘The Dead’), Ernest
Hemingway (‘Hills like White Elephants’), Samuel Beckett (‘For to End Yet
Again’) Saul Bellow (‘Mosby’s Memoirs’), Alex La Guma (‘Tattoo Marks and
Nails’) and Chinua Achebe (‘Girls at War’). One of my own stories,
‘Loyalties’, from the volume of that title first published in the UK in 1986 by
Longman, will also be made available.
It is expected that by the end of each workshop the participants will have
sufficiently imbibed the lessons learnt to be in a position to produce at least
one short story of publishable standard. A selection from these will then be
published by The New Gong before the end of 2010 as a follow-up to The
New Gong Book of New Nigerian Short Stories (2008). The anthology itself
will be published entirely at The New Gong’s expense and the authors
included will each receive six free copies.
Each workshop will be limited to twelve participants on a first come, first
served basis. The workshops will be held at The New Gong’s office: 11
Abiona Close, off Falolu Road, Surulere, Lagos. Further enquiries to:
adewale@thenewgong.com
weekends. Led by Adewale Maja-Pearce, the former editor of the Heinemann
African Writers Series, the first will be held in March (6, 13, 20 and 27), the
second in April (3, 10, 17 and 24) and the third in May (8, 15, 22 and 29).
The workshops will concentrate on the art of the short story, a form which has
been greatly neglected by Nigerian writers but which, in its brevity and
precision of language, is a better discipline than the ragbag novel to hone the
writer’s craft.
The sessions will be interactive. Each participant will be required to come with
at least one short story they have written, which will then be analyzed in terms
of approach, dialogue, language and setting. The appropriateness of first-
person vs. third-person will also be discussed. In the course of each
workshop a selection of the world’s great short stories - photocopies of which
will be distributed beforehand - will be used as examples of how the ‘masters’
have achieved their varied effects. These will include, but not necessarily be
limited to: Anton Chekhov (‘The Lady with the Lapdog’), Guy de Maupassant
(‘Bertha’), Isaac Babel (‘My First Goose’), James Joyce (‘The Dead’), Ernest
Hemingway (‘Hills like White Elephants’), Samuel Beckett (‘For to End Yet
Again’) Saul Bellow (‘Mosby’s Memoirs’), Alex La Guma (‘Tattoo Marks and
Nails’) and Chinua Achebe (‘Girls at War’). One of my own stories,
‘Loyalties’, from the volume of that title first published in the UK in 1986 by
Longman, will also be made available.
It is expected that by the end of each workshop the participants will have
sufficiently imbibed the lessons learnt to be in a position to produce at least
one short story of publishable standard. A selection from these will then be
published by The New Gong before the end of 2010 as a follow-up to The
New Gong Book of New Nigerian Short Stories (2008). The anthology itself
will be published entirely at The New Gong’s expense and the authors
included will each receive six free copies.
Each workshop will be limited to twelve participants on a first come, first
served basis. The workshops will be held at The New Gong’s office: 11
Abiona Close, off Falolu Road, Surulere, Lagos. Further enquiries to:
adewale@thenewgong.com