Zadie Adeline Smith FRSL is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, White Teeth (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University since September 2010.
Ama Ata Aidoo, néeChristina Ama Aidoo is a Ghanaian author, poet, playwright and academic. She was the Minister of Education under the Jerry Rawlings administration. In 2000, she established the Mbaasem Foundation to promote and support the work of African women writers.
Karen Lynne Hall is an American television writer, producer, author, bookstore owner and a member of the George Foster Peabody Awards board of jurors, best known for her work on the television series Judging Amy and M*A*S*H.
Sonia Sanchez is an American poet, writer, and professor. She was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement and has written over a dozen books of poetry, as well as short stories, critical essays, plays, and children's books. In the 1960s, Sanchez released poems in periodicals targeted towards African-American audiences, and published her debut collection, Homecoming, in 1969. In 1993, she received Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and in 2001 was awarded the Robert Frost Medal for her contributions to the canon of American poetry. She has been influential to other African-American poets, including Krista Franklin.
Efua Theodora Sutherland was a Ghanaian playwright, director, dramatist, children's author, poet, educationalist, researcher, child advocate, and cultural activist. Her works include the plays Foriwa (1962), Edufa (1967), and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975). She founded the Ghana Drama Studio, the Ghana Society of Writers, the Ghana Experimental Theatre, and a community project called the Kodzidan. As the earliest Ghanaian playwright-director she was an influential figure in the development of modern Ghanaian theatre, and helped to introduce the study of African performance traditions at the university level. She was also a pioneering African publisher, establishing the company Afram Publications in Accra in the 1970s.
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She is the incumbent United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She is also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to serve three terms. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.
Lynn Rogoff is an American film and television producer, playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, and academic. She is best known for writing the 1979 Emmy Award winning documentary film No Maps on My Taps and the 1983 play Love, Ben Love, Emma; the latter of which examines the correspondence between Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman. She is currently an associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology.
Jessica Blank, is an American actress, writer, and director who works in film, television, and theater. She is also a consultant and public speaker on story and social change.
Lori L. Lake is an American writer of fiction, mainly about lesbian protagonists. She is also an editor, instructor, publisher, and reviewer.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana(EC) is the official body in Ghana responsible for all public elections. Made up of seven members, its independence is guaranteed by the 1992 Ghana constitution. The current commission was established by the Electoral Commission Act of 1993. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan was the first substantive chairman of the commission from 1993 to 2015. He was succeeded by Charlotte Osei as the first female chairman of the commission. On 5 December 2018, the Electoral commission chaired by Jean Adukwei Mensah reverted to the old logo showing Coat of arms of Ghana and a ballot box showing the hand casting its votes, after the controversy over the new logo
Lauren Beukes is a South African novelist, short story writer, journalist and television scriptwriter.
Louise Emma Joseph, known professionally as Dreda Say Mitchell MBE, is a British novelist, broadcaster, journalist and freelance education consultant. She rose to particular prominence in the media during the Brexit campaign, when she was in favour of exit.
Akosua Dentaa Amoateng MBE, best known by her stage name Dentaa, is a British Ghanaian entrepreneur, actress, TV presenter, singer, producer and manager. She was awarded an MBE in the 2016 Birthday Honours and in 2017 she received the Ghana Peace Awards Humanitarian Service Laureate in Accra, Ghana. In mid-September of 2020 she was appointed by Asante Kotoko S.C. as their International Relations Manager.
Leith Patricia Mullings was a Jamaican-born author, anthropologist and professor. She was president of the American Anthropological Association from 2011–2013, and was a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Mullings was involved in organizing for progressive social justice, racial equality and economic justice as one of the founding members of the Black Radical Congress and in her role as President of the AAA. Under her leadership, the American Anthropological Association took up the issue of academic labor rights.
Carla Namwali Serpell is a Zambian writer who teaches in the United States. In April 2014 she was named on the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and talent to define trends in African literature. Her short story "The Sack" won the 2015 Caine Prize for African fiction in English. In 2020, Serpell won the Belles-lettres category Grand Prix of Literary Associations 2019 for her novel The Old Drift.
Minna Salami is a Finnish Nigerian journalist who has propagated information on African feminist issues, about the African diaspora, and Nigerian women through her award-winning blog MsAfropolitan, which she created and has been editing since 2010. The issues covered in the blog are "ranging from polygamy to feminism to relationships". Apart from blogging she also writes on social issues. She is represented on the Global Educator Network of Duke University, the Africa Network and The Guardian Books Network of The Guardian. Salami's blogs and articles are featured in The Guardian, Al Jazeera and The Huffington Post. She is the recipient of several national awards.
Stacy Amoateng is television presenter/producer, media consultant, philanthropist and actress from Ghana. She founded a charitable organisation to support women and children in need and has been recognised for her work via a Ghana Peace Award.
Ruby Yayra Goka is a Ghanaian dentist and author. She has 15 books to her credit and is best known for being a multiple Burt Award for African Literature winner in Ghana.
Nicole Amarteifio is a Ghanaian film director, producer, and screenwriter.
Peace Adzo Medie is a Liberian-born Ghanaian academic and writer of both fiction and nonfiction.
