Residenzprogramm
Writing gender

Huza Press and Goethe Institut Announce the Selected authors for 2021 Writing Residency

We are thrilled to announce the writers who have been selected for the ‘Writing Gender’ residency due to take place this September in Kigali. The residency is part of a collaboration between Huza Press and Goethe-Institut Kigali. After a public call for submissions and a detailed process of reading and review, the following African and German-speaking writers were selected from over 100 submissions:

Maryam Kazeem (Nigeria)

Julia Jost (Austria)


During the residency both writers will work on their in-progress novel manuscripts and engage with the literary and creative community in Rwanda.
A four member jury made up of Olumide Popoola, Billy Kahora, Fabienne Imlinger and Jochen Kӧnigg selected the winning writers and two runner-ups–Precious Collette Kemigisha and Nannina Matz from a shortlist of nineteen. 

Kenyan writer Billy Kahora commented on the judging process: “The submissions were of an extremely high quality showing the potential for storytelling in the novel form on the continent taking on current political realities. It was tough to select the winner when so many writers are clearly raising key questions on history, gender and representation without sacrificing creative experimentation.”
Olumide Popoola said of the winning Africa-based writer: “Maryam Kazeem’s writing is sophisticated and beautiful. Her project brims with important and thought-provoking ideas. The novel revolves around naked protests by Nigerian women while engaging with the body, archive(s) and how history is shaped. Kazeem has found an exciting format to interrogate these questions while keeping the reader firmly in the story.”

Fabienne Imlinger and Jochen Kӧnigg said of the winning German-speaking writer: “Julia Jost delighted the jury with her application. Her outstanding writing, her unique take on a queer coming of age story set in rural Austria, which she renders with sensitive observations – distant and factual and at the same time intimate and vulnerable – made the difference.”
The selected writers will be in Kigali for four weeks over September 2021. They will receive a grant of 2000 Euro each for the residency period.

We are looking forward to welcoming Maryam Kazeem and Julia Jost to Kigali.