Violet Barungi
Violet Barungi is a novelist and writer from Uganda, well-known in East African literary circles both for her own writing and her prolific career as the Editor for FEMRITE - Uganda Women Writers’ Association.[1][2]
Career as a solo author
Barungi regards her novel Cassandra as her finest literary achievement,[3] and it remains the work that has received the most attention from critics.[1][2]
Barungi’s play “Over My Dead Body” won the British Council New Playwriting Award for Africa and The Middle East in 1997,[4] and has been subsequently anthologized in African Women Playwrights (ISBN 978-0-252-03387-2), edited by Professor Kathy Perkins, a recognized authority on African and African Diaspora Theatre.[5]
Barungi’s other publications include short stories, poems, modern-day folk tales for children, and incidental journalism.[6]The “themes that run through most of my works,” Barungi discussed in an interview with LaKeisha L. Caples for African Writer, are “liberation and empowerment of women (social, economic and political), with emphasis on the education of the girl-child.”[2]
Career as FEMRITE Editor
A founding member of FEMRITE, Barungi has served as Editor since 1997 to 2007 with Goretti Kyomuhendo as FEMRITE Program Coordinator.[7]Barungi has also assisted FEMRITE as a co-editor since her semi-retirement in 2007.[2]
As FEMRITE Editor, Barungi worked with and published several writers who were then relatively unknown but have since received national, regional, and even international recognition. These FEMRITE alumni include the Caine Prize winner Monica Arac de Nyeko, Caine Prize nominee and Commonwealth Writers Prize winner Doreen Baingana, Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa winner Glaydah Namukasa, Ugandan Book Trust and Pan-African Literary Forum Award winner Mildred Barya, Africa Region Commonwealth Short Story Competition winner Jackee Budesta Batanda, and Caine Prize nominee Beatrice Lamwaka among others.[4]
Barungi’s co-editors have included Hilda Twongyeirwe, Susan Kiguli, Helen Moffet, and Ayeta Anne Wangusa.
FEMRITE collections edited by Barungi
- Barungi, Violet. Words from a Granary. (Fiction: Short stories). Femrite Publications Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. 2001. (ISBN 9789970700011)
- Wangusa, Ayeta Anne and Violet Barungi, eds. Tears of Hope: A Collection of Short Stories by Ugandan Rural Women. Femrite Publications Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. 2002. (ISBN 978-9970700028)
- Barungi, Violet. Gifts of Harvest. (Fiction: Short stories). Femrite Publications Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. 2006. (ISBN 9789970700042)
- Moffet, Helen and Violet Barungi. Pumpkin Seeds And Other Gifts: Stories from the FEMRITE Regional Writers Residency, 2008. Femrite Publications Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. 2009. (ISBN 9789970700226)
- Twongyeirwe, Hilda and Violet Barungi, eds. Beyond the Dance: Voices of women on female genital mutilation. (Non-fiction). Femrite Publications Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. 2009. (ISBN 9789970700196)
- Twongyeirwe, Hilda and Violet Barungi, eds. Farming Ashes: Tales of Agony and Resilience (Non-fiction). Femrite Publications Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. 2009. (ISBN 9789970700202)
- Barungi, Violet. Talking Tales. Femrite Publications Ltd, Kampala, Uganda. 2009. (ISBN 9789970700219)
References
- ^ a b Musoke-Nteyafas, Jane. "Ugandan Writers: Meet Violet Barungi." AfroLit. May 29, 2006. Retrieved August 24, 2011 from http://afrolit.com/ugandan-writers-meet-violet-barungi/412/l.aspx
- ^ a b c d Caples, LaKeisha L. "I try to highlight social issues affecting women - Violet Barungi." AfricanWriter.com. May 10, 2010. Retrieved August 24, 2011 from http://www.africanwriter.com/articles/508/1/I-try-to-highlight-social-issues-affecting-women---Violet-Barungi/Page1.html
- ^ VioletBarungi.com Retrieved August 28, 2011 from http://www.violetbarungi.com
- ^ a b "FEMRITE Achievements and Milestones." FEMRITE - Uganda Women Writers' Association. Retrieved August 22, 2011 from http://www.femriteug.org/?view=7
- ^ ”Kathy A. Perkins.” Illinois Theatre. Retrieved August 28, 2011 from http://theatre.uiuc.edu/faculty/26
- ^ “Publications.” VioletBarungi.com . Retrieved August 28, 2011 from http://www.violetbarungi.com/publications.htm
- ^ "History of FEMRITE." FEMRITE -- Uganda Women Writers' Association. Retrieved August 22, 2011 from http://www.femriteug.org/?view=21