Susan Nalugwa Kiguli (born 24 June 1969 in

Luweero District Luweero District (also spelled as Luwero) is a Districts of Uganda, district in the Central Region, Uganda, Central Region of Uganda. Luweero is the site of the district headquarters. Location Luweero District is bordered by Nakasongola District ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

) is a Ugandan poet and literary scholar.Gandtschi, Ali. "Susan Kiguli (Uganda)"
Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, 2008. Retrieved 21 September 2011. She is an associate professor of literature at

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 ...

. Kiguli has been an advocate for creative writing in Africa, including service as a founding member of FEMRITE,"History of FEMRITE"
FEMRITE – Uganda Women Writers' Association. Retrieved 22 August 2011. a judge for 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 ...

(African Region, 1999), and an advisory board member for the

African Writers Trust The African Writers Trust (AWT) was established in 2009 as "a non-profit entity which seeks to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote sharing of skills and other resources, and to fost ...

."Advisory Board"
African Writers Trust. Retrieved 24 August 2011. As a poet, Kiguli is best known for her 1998 collection '' The African Saga'',World Social Forum. "Susan Kiguli (Uganda)". Poetic Voices at the World Social Forum Nairobi, Kenya, 19–23 January 2007.
Retrieved 21 September 2011. as a scholar, and for her work on oral poetry and performance.ACLS, "Fellows and Research: Susan Nalugwa Kiguli F'10."
American Council of Learned Societies: Advancing the Humanities, 27 July 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.

Education

* 2005:

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in English, The University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom * 1996:

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in literary linguistics for teaching English language and literature, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom * 1994:

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in literature, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda * 1991:

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

education, Makerere University

Poetry and performances

Kiguli has participated as a poet and reader in numerous literary festivals and conferences, including the

International Literature Festival Berlin The Berlin International Literature Festival () or ''ilb'' is an annual event based in Berlin. Every September, the festival presents contemporary poetry, prose, nonfiction, graphic novels and international children's and young adult literature. ...

(2008); the

Poetry Africa Poetry Africa is an international poetry festival held annually in Durban, South Africa. More than twenty poets, predominantly from South Africa and elsewhere on the African continent, participate in the 7- to 10-day Poetry Africa, an international ...

Festival in Kwazulu–Natal, South Africa (2009);"Susan Kiguli (Uganda)". 19th Poetry Africa Festival, 5–9 October 2009.
Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Nata. Retrieved 21 September 2011. the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya (2007); and the Leeds Centre for African Studies, University of Leeds, United Kingdom (2005). In addition to her critically acclaimed collection ''The African Saga'', which won the National Book Trust of Uganda Poetry Award (1999),"FEMRITE Achievements and Milestones."
FEMRITE – Uganda Women Writers' Association. Retrieved 22 August 2011. Kiguli has also written poems for children – four of which were featured by ''Books LIVE'', as "Animal Portraits by Susan Kiguli (Note of Affection No. 4, Love Africa Carnival)"Smith, Alex
“Animal Portraits by Susan Kiguli (Note of Affection #4, Love Africa Carnival)"
Books LIVE: The internet newspaper for SA books, 9 September 2008. Retrieved 21 September 2011. and selected by readers as "one of the most loved Love Notes of its month."Smith, Alex
"Hogging the Apple: Susan Kiguli’s experience of reading Gabeba Baderoon’s poetry"
Books LIVE: The internet newspaper for SA books, 4 February 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2011. Kiguli has discussed her own childhood reading experiences in an interview with ''BooksLIVE''.Little Hands @ Books LIVE. "Susan Kiguli’s formative reading experiences"
''Books LIVE'', 17 March 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2011. Kiguli has also contributed poetry for children to the collection ''Michael's Eyes: The War against the Ugandan Child'', an international collaborative effort "intended to raise the global awareness of the situation in Northern Uganda," particularly concerning the troubles caused by the

Lord's Resistance Army The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is a Christian extremist organization operating in Central Africa and East Africa. Its origins were in the War in Uganda (1986–1994), Ugandan insurgency (1986–1994) against Yoweri Museveni, during which Jo ...

.Granqvist, Raoul J., ed. ''Michael's Eyes: The War against the Ugandan Child''. Institutionen för Moderna Språk. Umeå universitet. Umeå, Sweden, 2006. Kiguli's poems were also featured in ''Eye of the Storm: A Photographic Journey Across Uganda'', with photography by David Pluth and Pierre-Francois Didek. Kiguli has also been featured by Ultra Violet: Indian feminists unplugged,Kiguli, Susan. "Two poems."
Ultra Violet: Indian feminists unplugged, 1 January 2010. Retrieved 21 September 2011. and by Department of English & Creative Writing,

Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

.Kiguli, Susan
Translating "Sing Like A River" into "Yira Ng'o Mugga".
Crossing Borders Open Day, Department of English & Creative Writing, Bowland College. Lancaster University, February 2006. Retrieved 21 September 2011. Her work is included in the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora ...

'', 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 ...

Scholarship and criticism

Praised by the poet and critic

Alex Smith Alexander Douglas Smith (born May 7, 1984) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He played college football for the Utah Utes, earning first-team All-American ho ...

as "the leading intellectually astute voice in contemporary East African poetry," Kiguli was an

American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...

Fellow for 2010, with her research focusing on "Oral Poetry and Popular Song in South Africa and Uganda: A Study of Contemporary Performance.” On the same general topic, Kiguli’s recent intellectual contributions include “The Symbolism of Music Festivals in Buganda: The case of Ekitoobero and Enkuuka y’omwaka,” in ''Performing Community'' (2008) and "Mapping the Dream of Cultural Continuity: Songs at Enkuuka y’omwaka” in ''Performing Change'' (2009). Alex Smith also found noteworthy Kiguli's comments on ''A Hundred Silences'', the third collection of poems by Gabeba Baderoon.

Published works

Anthologies

* *

Poems

*"I laugh at Amin","My mother in three photographs" in *"Weeping landa" in

References

External links

"When Kiguli treated us to a poetry fest ""Animal Portraits by Susan Kiguli (Note of Affection #4, Love Africa Carnival)""Susan Kiguli’s formative reading experiences"

Webcast at the Library of Congress 16 November 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiguli, Susan Nalugwa 1969 births 20th-century Ugandan poets Makerere University alumni Living people Ugandan women poets 21st-century Ugandan poets 20th-century Ugandan women writers 21st-century Ugandan women writers Alumni of the University of Leeds