2023 UQP Writing Mentorship Awardee

4 December 2023

Congratulations to UQ Creative Writing PhD student Doreen Baingana who is the recipient of the 2023 UQP Writing Mentorship.

The UQP Writing Mentorship was established to share knowledge, nurture creativity and develop culturally important stories, and is open to current students and recent graduates of UQ postgraduate writing programs.

Doreen will receive editorial support and advice from the UQP team to develop her novel, Tongues of Fire. UQP Publishing Director Madonna Duffy says, ‘Doreen Baingana’s novel-in-progress presents a vivid and richly characterised picture of 1980s Uganda in the grip of civil war. We can’t wait to work with her to develop this exciting work.’

‘Winning this mentorship is an affirmation of the quality of my novel manuscript. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with UQP to make it publication-ready. What a wonderful introduction to Australian literary life,’ says Doreen.

Doreen Baingana is a Ugandan writer. Her short story collection, Tropical Fish, won the Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction in 2003 and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book, Africa Region in 2006. She has been shortlisted three times for the Caine Prize for African Writing. Other awards include a Miles Morland Scholarship for African Writers and a Rockefeller Bellagio Residency. She has also published two children’s books, and has worked as an editor and writing coach. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

The recipient of last years' mentorship was Carly-Jay Metcalfe for her memoir, Breath, which will be published by UQP in March 2024 and is available to pre-order.

Applications for the 2024 mentorship will open mid-2024.

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