Art of the autobiography

Masterclass

Friday, 8th May
10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Children are storytelling creatures. They enter the world with an instinctive ability to acquire and use language to weave imagination, experience, and meaning into narrative. Over time, divergent thinking and creative capacity are diminished by formal education, social conditioning, and the demands of adulthood. In adults, creativity is not lost, just suppressed. What remains is the impulse to tell one’s own story. This masterclass is designed to unlock that impulse. You will learn to reclaim your voice, structure memory, and shape lived experience into a compelling narrative. Through practical narrative techniques and guided reflection, you will develop the discipline required to transform memory into story and lived experience into literature.

Richard Oduor Oduku is a humanist, researcher, poet and writer. He has been published in Jalada Africa, Saraba Magazine, Kwani? Storymoja, and This is Africa among others. His story eNGAGEMENT, published in the Jalada Afrofutures anthology, was longlisted for the BSFA Awards 2015. His recent work is Slave, Interpreter & Commissioner-General: An Authorized Biography of Edgar Manasseh, The First KRA Commissioner-General.