Kwame Owusu with Ingrid Selberg (Estate of Mustapha Matura). Photo credit Richard H Smith
Kwame said, “I am absolutely thrilled to be awarded the Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme. It is such an honour to be given this rare and generous opportunity to receive mentorship from a world-class playwright, alongside the championing of my writing that this award bestows. I’m incredibly excited to sharpen my writing technique over this mentorship period, and to expand my approach to storytelling and form with increasing boldness, ambition, and precision. This is a life-changing moment for me, and I feel genuinely delighted and galvanised for the future.”
Ingrid Selberg, wife of Mustapha Matura says, “I found Kwame Owusu’s ‘Dreaming and Drowning’ a powerful and authentic portrayal of a coming of age of a young black person, which explored anxiety, anger, confusion and joy conveyed in vivid and poetic language. I feel Kwame Owusu is a writer with great promise and deserves to win the Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme.”
The Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme is supported by Estate of Mustapha Matura, Garrick Charitable Trust and The Henry Kent Trust and many individual donors.
Shortlist
- Hannah Shury-smith Go Back Home!
- Kwame Owusu Dreaming and Drowning
- Tife Kusoro G [or Gully]
Longlist
- Hannah Shury-Smith Go Back Home!
- Kwame Owusu Dreaming and Drowning
- Savannah Ayoade-Greaves Grandma's Footsteps
- Steven Kavuma Another F_ing Play About Race
- Temi Majekodunmi Thicker Than Water
- Tife Kusoro G [or GULLY]
