About the Project in Uganda

The first stage of Radiophonics was an online creative writing workshop that ran from 16 - 26 October 2006 in Uganda. The writing produced through this workshop will be broadcast on radio in the future. The two mentors and eight participants who took part are listed below, along with the workshop coordinators. Click on the names to see individual profiles:

Mentors:

Sara Maitland

Michelene Wandor

Participants:

Adrian Baryamujura

Ebenezer Bifubyeka

Irene Luyiga

Amaguru Olanya

Nancy Oloro Robarts

Roy-Moses Kalyesubula

Julius Caesar Sseremba

David Tumusiime

Co-ordinators:

Dr Graham Mort, Project Leader

Dr Kate Horsley, Research Assistant

For the 10-day period, participants worked as a group led by Sara Maitland and Michelene Wandor, enabling the development of eight 10-minute short stories for radio. These original short stories had a strong emphasis on narrative, avoiding too much dialogue, character description and digression; all eight were linked conceptually.  Since they formed part of a coherent series, the group discussion in the workshop helped participants in revising their pieces collaboratively. Each piece focused upon a topical, social or political issue in contemporary Uganda and their ability to stimulate discussion and debate.

At the beginning of the workshop, each writer submitted one piece of work of approximately 1,300 words that was critiqued by the other writers and briefly commented on by the moderator. All submissions were then posted simultaneously in eight labeled discussion threads dedicated to the work of individual participants. After first drafts were posted, the first mentor - Sara Maitland - supplied a written critique of a first draft of the work.  The group then had five days to comment on each piece and widen the forum discussion out to encompass any wider issues raised.

   
During the first five days of the discussion, participants aimed to read all the writing of each participant and critique three pieces of writing. These critiques were a minimum of 250 words and a maximum of 350 words. After the first five days, participants revised their pieces to take account of the comments made by participants and mentors, incorporating ideas raised during the discussion. Revised pieces were then posted by the individual participants for everyone to view once more.  In the five days that followed the posting of revised pieces, the second mentor - Michelene Wandor -  provided detailed critiques of all second drafts.  Participants then once again submitted three critiques of 250-350 words that focused on polishing each piece for performance.  At the end of this period, the pieces were revised as tightly as possible in order to be ready for radio production.