Crossing borders

In an effort to break the isolation under which many African writers work, and enrich the experience of British writers, the Crossing Borders initiative has been set up by the British Council, UK's Lancaster University and a range of African partners.

The project is a cross-cultural distance-learning project involving a mentoring programme, conducted via email, between established UK writers with young African writers working in the fields of poetry, prose fiction and children’s writing.

The first phase of the project began in September 2003 and involves writers from Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The British writers who are acting as mentors are John Lindley, Catherine Johnson, Brian McCabe, Graham Mort and Sara Maitland. Each of them will conduct workshops and readings in each of the five countries early in 2004.

The second phase of the programme began in December 2003 and is targetting writers from Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria. Workshops will be held in these countries in July 2004.

Programme participants in the target African countries can direct their own learning through correspondence with their mentor. Each writers develops, and revises, a portfolio of new writing in consultation with the mentor. The writing journal, which collates the entire experience of the course, can be seen as an original piece of creative research.

For further information contact Tara Duce at Lancaster University - email: t.duce@lancaster.ac.uk
or click here to visit the British Council website.