An exciting opportunity to take part in the British Council’s Crossing Borders writing scheme

 

Crossing Borders is an on-line mentoring scheme designed to help young Nigerian writers improve their writing skills through working with a more experienced writer in the UK.

 

 

 

Participants will:

 

-         Be over 18 and under 40 years of age on April 1st 2005

-         Be an experienced writer with a portfolio of original work in poetry, prose or writing for children

-         Have an excellent standard of written English and be able to use its idioms creatively

-         Have a strong commitment to developing their own work and that of other writers, through participating in creative writing networks.

-         Be able to dedicate time to complete six writing assignments by agreed deadlines and fully engage in the mentoring exchanges 

 

If you are interested and fit this description, please send, preferably by email, to Pamela Okechukwu (pamela.okechukwu@ng.britishcouncil.org)  By 31st January, 2005:

 

-         a two page letter of interest saying which literary form (poetry, prose or writing for young people) you wish to write in and why you would benefit from participating in the programme. Also include the following details: your current address, email, telephone or mobile phone number.

 

-         a one page Curriculum Vitae with your name, age, gender, state of origin & mother tongue (or Nigerian language you write in when not writing in English) and contact details. Plus details of any publications you’ve had.

 

-         either 3 poems or 3 sides (of A4) prose writing – story or novel extract

 

All the above must be sent by email or word-processed. Hand written submissions, those that exceed the requirements explained above, or those that arrive after 31st January 2005, will not be accepted. The cost of registration after acceptance onto the scheme will be N5,000, which includes membership of your nearest British Council Information Centre (Abuja, Kano, Lagos or Port Harcourt) and access to the fiction and poetry collections, reference books, and computer terminal/Internet facilities.  The registration fee will be payable at the induction event in cash.

 

12 places are available on the scheme and we regret that unsuccessful applicants will not be contacted.