Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora

We are thrilled to announce the 10 writers from across Africa and the Diaspora who have been selected for the LOATAD Black Atlantic Residency 2025: African Solidarities supported by Hawthornden Foundation:

First row, left to right:

Roger Robinson, a globally recognised writer and performer, boasts an impressive array of accolades, including the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019, RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020, and RSL Fellowship. Notably, he’s been lauded by Decibel & Arts Council England as pivotal in shaping Black-British literature. His work features prominently in esteemed anthologies like The Forward Book Of Poetry 2024 and The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain. Roger’s commissions span prestigious institutions such as the BBC, Tate, and The National Portrait Gallery. He’s an esteemed judge for renowned literary awards like the Folio Prize and T.S. Eliot Prize, with his poem “A Portable Paradise” part of the GCSE English Literature syllabus. Roger’s workshops, recognised for excellence, have garnered acclaim, with his books A Portable Paradise, Home is Not A Place and The Butterfly Hotel earning multiple nominations. As a co-founder of Spoke Lab and Malika’s Kitchen, he contributes significantly to global literary communities.

Jaimee A. Swift (she/her) is the executive director and founder of Black Women Radicals, a Black feminist advocacy organisation dedicated to uplifting and centering Black women and gender expansive people’s radical activism in Africa and in the African Diaspora. She is also the creator and founder of The School for Black Feminist Politics (SBFP), the Black feminist political education arm of Black Women Radicals. Swift is the co-author, with Joseph R. Fitzgerald, of the forthcoming biography of Black feminist icon Barbara Smith. Smith was a founding member of the Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist socialist organisation active in Boston, Massachusetts from 1974 to 1980, and co-author of the Combahee River Collective Statement (1977), a pioneering text within Black feminist politics. Smith was also co-founder of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first press for and by women of colour and is an architect of the field of Black Women’s Studies in the United States. Swift is also the editor of A Furious Flower Blooms: Honoring the Intellectual and Political Leadership of Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin, founder of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the nation’s first academic centre for Black poetry and the Wintergreen Women Writers’ Collective, an intergenerational gathering and literary sisterhood of Black women writers. She is an Assistant Professor of Black Politics in the Department of Political Science at James Madison University.

Zainab Floyd is a Haitian and Black American artist and curator based in New York. She was born in The Bronx but grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. She is interested in themes of world building, Black feminism, liberation and Black resistance. She utilises archives of the Caribbean as a tool for re-imagining history and spaces for rebellion. Zainab is the founder and executive director of Caribbean Archive, a curatorial project that functions as an educational tool and centres Afro-Caribbean women and femme artists, all of whom have created a scholarship of work that is representative of resistance and agency. Caribbean Archive has organised and curated exhibitions and public programmes. Zainab is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Second row, left to right:

Lori L. Tharps is an award-winning author, journalist and educator. A self-described storytelling evangelist, Tharps is a recognised voice in the areas of race, identity politics and African-American culture. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Glamour and Essence magazines. In 2021, Lori moved with her family to the south of Spain, where she launched Reed, Write & Create, a podcast and platform that celebrates and supports BIPoC stories and storytellers. The Reed, Write, & Create podcast was named Best Literary Podcast by the Black Podcasting Awards in 2023. A graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Lori is the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (St. Martin’s Press) Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain (Atria) and Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families (Beacon). Tharps also penned the novel, Substitute Me (Atria Books). Lori has also worked as a book coach and collaborator with celebrities and public figures, and has written four books in this role, including I Wasn’t Supposed to Be Here by Jonathan Conyers (Legacy Lit). Currently Lori is at work on a novel.

Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza is a Zimbabwean thriller writer and novelist based in Harare. His debut novel manuscript, Freelance, won the Island Prize for Debut African Fiction in 2024. A finalist in the 2018 Africa Book Club Short Story Competition, his work has been featured in the Wrong Patient and Other Stories from Africa anthology, and Transition Magazine Issue 131. Kundizeza crafts gripping stories that delve into the themes of power, corruption, and resilience in the African context.

vangile gantsho is healer, poet and co-founder of impepho press – a Pan Africanist intersectional feminist publishing house. She is the author of two poetry collections: red cotton (2018) and Undressing in Front of the Window (2015), holds an MA, from the University Currently Known as Rhodes (UCKR) and is a graduate of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute. In 2018, she was named one of Mail & Guardian’s Top Young 200 South Africans. Her poetry has been published in various literary publications around the globe, including New Daughters of Africa (2019). gantsho has participated in festivals and literary programmes across three continents. She has curated and produced in-person and online international programmes and co-created a poetry and film meditation called forgetting. and memory. with Toni Giselle Stuart and Vusumzi Ngxande. She has taught at institutions including UCKR, Wits University, New York University, Rowan University, CUNY La Guardia and State College. gantsho dedicates herself and her work to creating and/or supporting spaces that encourage (black feminine visibility and) healing. Her current obsessions include Ukuthula, a creative writing resistance to gender based violence, and smallgirl rising connecting the Divine Black Feminine, an international intergenerational poetry healing initiative.

Third row, left to right:

Nzube Nlebedim (he/him) is a Nigerian writer and editor. He is the author of At Night Men Take the Lonely Way Back Home, a collection of thirteen creative nonfiction essays. He is the founding editor of The Shallow Tales Review, a digital literary magazine publishing African and Black Literature. He served in 2021 as the West Africa field editor of African Oil and Power, Mauritius. In 2024, he was selected for the Granta Longform Journalism Workshop. He served on the jury of the 2024 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize.  Nlebedim’s current research centres on 20th and 21st century African American drama. His writing revolves around the amplification of memory as an instrument to address the present. His work tackles nostalgia, African diasporic cultural contacts, and the dynamics of 21st century diasporic literatures. Nlebedim’s essays, short stories and poetry appear in Business Day, The Shallow Tales Review, Afritondo, The James Currey Anthology (vol. 1), Brittle Paper, African Writer, Isele Magazine, The Republic, Olongo Africa, The Kalahari Review, The Journal, Culture Custodian, Afapinen, Counterclock Journal, AFREADA, Entropy, Taint Taint Taint, The Lagos Review, Punocracy, Down River Road, as well as other journals and anthologies. He lives in Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria.

Noor Salah Elfaki is an award-winning Sudanese short fiction writer who won first place in the prestigious Altayeb-Salih National Short Stories Competition, the Ghada Literary Awards for Youth, and the Nirvana Literary Award. Her stories, often recognised for their emotional depth and cultural nuance, have been published and honoured both nationally and regionally. She is passionate about amplifying Sudanese voices, particularly advocating for peace, equality, and the rich cultural heritage of Sudan. She also creates content that highlights the struggles and resilience of Sudanese people during the ongoing war. In addition to her literary achievements, she is a guitarist and a final year medical student  at the University of Khartoum. As a writer who explores the intersection of Sudan’s Arab and African identities, she brings a unique voice to the contemporary African literary scene.

Abdulrazaq Salihu, TPC I, is a Nigerian poet and member of the hilltop creative arts foundation. He won the SOD poetry contest , BPKW poetry contest, Poetry archive poetry contest, Masks literary magazine poetry award, Nigerian prize for teen authors(poetry), Hilltop creative writing award, and others. He  has received fellowship and residency from IWE writers residency, SPRINg, Frances Thompson writers studio and elsewhere. He has his works published/forthcoming in Uncanny, Bacopa, Consequence, South Florida poetry, Eunoia review, strange horizons, Unstamatic, Bracken, Poetry Quarter(ly), Rogue, B*k, Jupiter review, black moon magazine, Angime, Grub Street mag and elsewhere. He enjoys the aesthetics of language and the simplicity of things and is the author of Constellations (poetry) and hiccups (Prose).

Fourth row:

Denoo Edinam Yawo, pseudonym Poetic Siren, is a Ghana-based writer, pharmacist and storyteller committed to amplifying African voices and experiences. Through a diverse body of work including fiction, satire and social critique, she captures the complexity of identity, cultural heritage and the socio-political currents shaping contemporary African life. Denoo is dedicated to crafting stories that resonate with authenticity and bridge cultural narratives. Their writing has featured in the Umuofia Books and Arts Anthology, and the Ikenga Issue of Akowdee Magazine.