Goretti Kyomuhendo
Goretti Kyomuhendo is one of Uganda’s leading novelists and founding director of the African Writers Trust. Her novels include The First Daughter (1996), Secrets No More (1999), which won the Uganda National Literary Award for Best Novel in the same year; and Waiting, published by The Feminist Press in New York, in 2007, and translated into Spanish in 2022, by Selva Canela Publishers. Her novella, Whispers from Vera was published in 2012. In 2014, she published the Essential Handbook for African Creative Writers. She has also published several children’s books and short stories, including Lost and Found, published in New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent edited by Margaret Busby (2019).
Goretti holds an MA degree in Creative Writing from the University of KwaZulu, Natal, South Africa, and taught creative writing in the same university in 2004. The first Ugandan woman writer to receive the International Writing Program Fellowship at the University of Iowa, Goretti has been recognised for her work as a writer and literary activist nationally and internationally, and has participated in numerous forums worldwide.
In 2021, she was appointed as Chair of judges for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. She also served as one of the five international judges for the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2012. In 2019, She was featured among the 100 Most Influential Africans by the UK- based, bestselling Pan African Magazine, New African ; and was appointed a member of the Commonwealth Foundation’s Civil Society Advisory Governors representing Africa, in 2020.
Goretti is a founding member of FEMRITE – Uganda Women Writers’ Association and Publishing House – and worked as its first Director for ten years (1997-2007).
Emmanuel Mugema Gonza
Emmanuel Mugema Gonza is the Accounts Officer at African Writers Trust and provides effective management of the organisation’s financial systems. Currently studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Procurement and Supply Chains Management at Makerere University Business School, Emmanuel has held internships with the Uganda Prisons Service, Century Bottling Company, and Honda Uganda Limited. He is also registered for the ACCA programme at the Management and Accountancy Training Company (MAT) Uganda.
Mark Akampurira
Mark Akampurira is the Office Administrator at African Writers Trust. He provides secretarial and administrative support to the director and other staff, and is the overall in-charge of all other office affairs. After receiving an honors degree in Social Work and Social Administration (SWSA) from Bishop Barham University College- Kabale, Uganda, Mark worked as a tutor at Great Lakes Institute, Kabale, Uganda and later, as a Registrar in the same institute. Before joining African Writers Trust, Mark was employed as an Enrollment Officer under the National Security Information system (NSIS) Project in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Uganda. Mark enjoys reading non-fiction and memoirs.
