Doreen Baingana (born 1966) is a Ugandan writer. Her short story collection, ''

Tropical Fish Tropical fish are fish found in aquatic tropical environments around the world. Fishkeepers often keep tropical fish in freshwater and saltwater aquariums. The term "tropical fish" is not a taxonomic group, but rather is a general term for f ...

,'' won the Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction in 2003 and the

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation has presented a number of prizes since 1987. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best First ...

for best first book, Africa Region in 2006. Stories in it were finalists for the

Caine Prize The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, the £10,000 prize was named ...

in 2004 and 2005. She was a Caine Prize finalist for the third time in 2021 and has received many other awards listed below.

Early life and education

Raised in Entebbe, Doreen Baingana attended

Gayaza High School Gayaza High School is the oldest all-girls boarding secondary school covering grades 8 to 13 (Secondary 1 to 6) in Uganda. The school is Church of Uganda, Church-founded, government of Uganda, government-aided and accredited by the Ministry of Ed ...

and obtained a law degree from

Makerere University Makerere University (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922, and the oldest currently active university in East Africa. It became an independent national university in ...

and an MFA in creative writing from the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

. Immediately thereafter, she was appointed writer-in-residence at th
Jiménez-Porter Writers House
She embarked on a PhD in Creative Writing at th
University of Queensland
in 2023.

Career

Baingana won the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction in 2003 for her collection ''

''. It was published by the University of Massachusetts Press and

Broadway Books Broadway Books is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.. It released its first list in Fall 1996. Broadway was founded in 1995 as a unit of Bantam Doubleday Dell, a unit of Bertelsmann. Bertelsmann acquire ...

in the US, Oshun Books in South Africa, and Cassava Republic Press in Nigeria. It has been translated int
Swedish
an

It is forthcoming in French. The linked stories, which explore the lives of three sisters growing up in Entebbe after the fall of

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 30 May 192816 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until Uganda–Tanzania War, his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a Military dictatorship, ...

, have been described by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' as "richly detailed stories" that are "lush with cultural commentary." Baingana has published two children's books as well as short stories, essays, and articles in numerous journals and magazines including
The Georgia ReviewThe Evergreen Review
The ''

African American Review ''African American Review'' is a scholarly aggregation of essays on African-American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews. It is the official publication of the Modern Language Ass ...

'', '' Chelsea'', ''Glimmer Train'', ''

Callaloo Callaloo ( , ; many spelling variants, such as kallaloo, calaloo, calalloo, calaloux, or callalloo) is a plant used in popular dishes in many Caribbean countries, while for other Caribbean countries, a stew made with the plant is called call ...

'', ''

Agni Agni ( ) is the Deva (Hinduism), Hindu god of fire. As the Guardians of the directions#Aṣṭa-Dikpāla ("Guardians of Eight Directions"), guardian deity of the southeast direction, he is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples. ...

'', '' The Caravan: A Journal of Politics and Culture'', '' Transition'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

Chimurenga ''Chimurenga'' is a word in Shona. The Ndebele equivalent is not as widely used since most Zimbabweans speak Shona; it is ''Umvukela'', meaning "revolutionary struggle" or uprising. In specific historical terms, it also refers to the Ndebele ...

'', '' Kwani?,'' '' Farafina an
Ibua
Her'' stories have been broadcast on

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

and

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and have been included in many anthologies including ''Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing''; ''The Granta Anthology of African Fiction'', ''Cultural Transformations'' (OneWorld), '' New Daughters of Africa'' (edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

, 2019). an
Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices
Baingana was a contractor with

for a decade and taught at th
Writer's Center
Bethesda, MD before returning to Uganda. She was a managing editor of Storymoja Africa, a Kenyan publisher, and chairperson of FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers Association. She co-founded and directs the Mawazo Africa Writing Institute and leads creative writing workshops across Africa. The title story of Baingana's award-winning collection ''

'' has been adapted to the stage and performed at the Kampala International Theatre Festival (KITF 2016) and four other venues in Kampala, as well as the AfriCologne Theatre Festival in Cologne, Germany, in 2017. Another of Baingana's short stories, "Hills of Salt and Sugar", was adapted and staged at KITF 2018. Baingana has been a judge for prizes including; The Afritondo Short Story Prize, the

9mobile Prize for Literature The 9mobile Prize for Literature (formerly the Etisalat Prize for Literature 2013–16) was created by Etisalat Nigeria in 2013, as "the first ever pan-African prize celebrating first-time African writers of published fiction books".

, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the Golden Baobab Prize and the Hurston/Wright Prize for Debut Fiction.

Awards

*2002: D.C. Commission of the Arts and Humanities Artist's Grant *2003: Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction *2004, 2005 & 2021: Caine Prize, finalist *2004: Bread Loaf Writers Conference Scholar *2004: Washington Independent Writers Fiction Prize *2005: Bread Loaf Writers Conference Michael and Marylee Fairbanks International Fellow *2006:

for a first book, Africa Region (nominated) *2006: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, finalist *2011: Norman Mailer Center Fellowship in Fiction *2014: Miles Morland Scholarship *2017: Rockefeller Bellagio Artist's Residency *2020
Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant, finalist
*2020: Tebere Arts Foundation Playwright Residency *2021
Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant.
*2022
La Porte Peinte Residency.
*2022
The Gretchen J. Bryant Freedom to Write Distinguished Fellowship.

Published works

Short-story collection

Children's books

* *

Short stories

Non-fiction

"Scars"
''Crab Orchard Review'', Winter 2002
"Our Stories Aren’t All Tragedies"
''The Guardian'', 2 August 2005 * "Encounters", ''The "O" Magazine'', South Africa, February 2006 * A monthly column in the magazine ''African Woman'', April 2006 to 2008
"Lamu Lover"
in ''It's All Love: Black Writers on Soul Mates, Family and Friends'', Broadway Books/Doubleday, 2009 * "The Last Word", ''The African Report'', December 2009
“Hargeisa Snapshots”
African Cities II: Mobilities & Fixtures, 2011
“Tuk-tuk Trail to Suya and Stars”
AGNI, September 2012
“Why Write?”
''START, Journal for East African Arts and Culture'', July 2013 * “Betty Oyella Bigombe” in When We Are Bold: Women Who Turn Our Upsidedown World Right, ''Nobel Women’s Initiative'', 2016 * “The Journey: Ebony Ava Harper” in This Bridge Called Woman, H.J. Twongyeirwe & A.T. Lichtenstein, eds., Femrite Publications, 2022. * “2022 AKO Caine Prize Shortlist Review,” Five Essays, Brittle Paper, July 2022.

References

External links

*Jennifer Ludden
"A View of Contemporary Uganda in 'Tropical Fish'"
''NPR'', 6 February 2005 *Christina Lee
"Writer's Shock: Author Doreen Baingana Prepares to Pen a Travelogue From Memory"
''Washington City Paper'', 18 November 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Baingana, Doreen 1966 births 21st-century Ugandan women writers Living people Makerere University alumni Ugandan short story writers Ugandan women short story writers Ugandan women writers University of Maryland Global Campus alumni