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Reading and Creative Writing Workshop with Writer in Residence Tochukwu Okafor
September 29, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
The combination of artist talk and writing workshop is to invite the public into Tochukwu’s process as a writer and to offer an opportunity to develop a fresh idea for a story. Creative writing is often seen as an elusive endeavor, meant for only the gifted or those with the innate ability to create worlds out of nothing. Through open discussion, questions-and-answers, sharing of personal experiences, and workshopping, Tochukwu hopes to leave the audience with the inspiration to write and create art, irrespective of age, background, or socio-economic standing.
Registrants will need to bring your own notebook and pens.
REGISTER HEREThis event is being held in-person at Bethany Arts Community. For your safety, and the safety of our artists and staff, attendance is being limited and you will be required to wear a mask while at Bethany irrespective of vaccination status. Please read our Covid-19 Safety Statement before your visit.
Bio
Tochukwu Okafor is a Nigerian writer whose work has appeared in the 2019 Best Small Fictions, the 2018 Best of the Net, The Guardian, Harvard’s Transition Magazine, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. He is a 2022 Good Hart Artist-in-Residence, a 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, a 2021 Wellstone Center in the Redwoods (WCR) Writing Fellow, a 2021 GrubStreet Emerging Writer Fellow, a 2021 Sundress Academy for the Arts Writer-in-Residence Fellow, a 2021 Jack Straw Writing Fellow, a 2021 Gish Jen Fiction Fellow, a 2021 Bethany Arts Community Artist-in-Residence, a 2021 Frank Conley Memorial Scholar, a 2021 Albertina Tholakele Dube Scholar for Young Writers, a 2021 Longleaf Writers Conference BIPOC Scholar, and an alumnus of the 2021 Tin House Workshop. He is also a 2018 Rhodes Scholar finalist, a 2018 Kathy Fish Fellow, and winner of the 2017 Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction. He has been shortlisted for the 2017 Awele Creative Trust Award, the 2016 Problem House Press Short Story Prize, the 2016 Southern Pacific Review Short Story Prize, and has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He was a member of the 2016 Short Story Day Africa Writing Workshop and the 2015 Association of Nigerian Authors Creative Writing Workshop. He holds a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and has received scholarships and fellowship grants from the Worcester Arts Council, Kundiman, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Etisalat (now 9mobile), the MTN Foundation, GrubStreet, Fishtrap, Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference, the Boston Writers of Color Group, and Exxon Mobil. He lives in Worcester, MA, and is at work on a novel and a story collection.
Artist’s social media:
Facebook: facebook.com/emmanuel.t.okafor/
Instagram: instagram.com/tochukwu_okafor/
Twitter:
twitter.com/toch_okafor
Residencies and programs at Bethany Arts Community are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Westchester, and numerous individual donors.
