Veteran dramatist and writer Smith Likongwe on Wednesday challenged writers to strive to expose their works to the world through participating in worldwide competitions among other strategies.
Likongwe, who is a drama lecturer at the University of Malawi (Unima) in Zomba, has just returned from an International Writing Programme (IWP) Fall Residency which was held at University of Iowa in United States of America (USA).
“Participating in competitions helps in terms of exposure and growth,” he said.
He described the International Writing Programme, which ran for three months, as a great gathering of prominent writers in different genres in their countries.
“The writers’ communion was punctuated with interactions and knowledge/skils exchange,” Likongwe said.
He further said that the platform also included public reading performances as well as staged readings that exposed them to the various styles from different parts of the world.
During the residency, Likongwe also tackled the issue of ‘Storytelling in the Digital Age’, especially with technology taking over the cosmoses.
In the presentation, Likongwe observed that the gradual emergence of digital storytelling is slowly pushing traditional storytelling on the brink of disappearance in certain areas of the world depending on the advancement of technology.
“It is crucial at this point to first address what is lost when digital storytelling overrides traditional storytelling,” Likongwe said.
Going forward, Likongwe said his plans are not only to write more but rather write literature that is sublime and stands the test of time and world regions.
Likongwe, whose publications include Kamuzu Banda and Other Plays (2019), Living Playscripts: A Trilogy (2018) and Prose, Poetry and Drama: A Malawian Anthology (2023) was among 32 selected writers from different countries.
He made it in this year’s programme, following in the path of the country’s other writers namely Shadreck Chikoti (2019), Muthi Nhlema (2021), Wesley Macheso (2023), late Edison Mpina (1982), Professor Steve Chimombo (1983) and Steve Sharra (1997).
Since 1967, over 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries have been in residence at the University of Iowa.
The US Department of State is a major source of support for the programme.
0 Comments