Monday 15 February - Thursday 25 February

Calling all brave heroes. Are you up for an adventure? Quay Words and international writer-in-residence, Efemia Chela, present a choose your own adventure creative writing experience.

It’s October 1806 and Akuba is an enslaved woman, a cook in Lord Hawkins’ household, down the road from the Exeter Custom House. On one fateful day, running errands around the city her life is changed forever, by you, the master writer of her fate. Decide who she meets, which decisions she makes and the shape of her destiny in the rapidly changing times of 19th century England.

In this online writing activity, you will be presented with a range of scenarios. Your decisions will influence the direction of your narrative.  They will guide you to write your own short story (word count confirmed on booking) which describes the outcomes of your decisions.

Please note, this activity will take place online. Joining instructions will be emailed to you after booking. Efemia will run a 30 minute Zoom introduction on 15th February at 1 pm (details to follow) and the activity will be live online for ten days, ending on Thursday 25th February at 5 pm. During these ten days, there will be no set times to be online, but you will be given a deadline by which you will need to submit your story.

Take part in your own time: this activity is aimed at honing your craft and will prompt you to go back a step and redraft if you hit a dead end.

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About Efemia Chela
Efemia Chela is a Zambian-Ghanaian writer and editor. In 2014 her debut story, ‘Chicken’, was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. In 2018 she was the Andrew Mellon Writer-in-Residence at Rhodes University. Her writing has appeared in places like the Johannesburg Review of Books, Pen Passages: Africa, Wasafiri and New Internationalist amongst others. She currently lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.