Writer in Residence, 2021

Achiro Patricia Olwoch is a Ugandan writer, playwright and filmmaker from Gulu, Northern Uganda. She is currently a writer in residence at the New York City Artist Safe Haven Residency Program. She has received multiple awards as head writer for her series ‘Yat Madit’, and her short films; ‘The Surrogate’, ‘The Mineral Basket’, ‘Maraya Ni’.

Olwoch worked as a sub-editor for the Ugandan lifestyle magazine ‘African Woman’, and later as the Editorial director for a lifestyle magazine she started in Malawi called ‘The African Dzuwa’ meaning The African Sun. She has mentored emerging writers in the performing arts during annual residential workshops by the Kampala International Theatre Festival for the past two years. 

She is presently working on a feature documentary titled ‘My Prison Diary’, due for release in 2022 and she has three feature scripts – ‘The General’s Amnesty’, ‘The Uprising’ and ‘The Surrogate Play’ – in development. Achiro is in the process of completing her late father’s manuscripts that he left behind after his death in 1994 and readying them to share with the rest of the world. She is also in the process of completing her first novel ‘Sex or Slave’ set in 1950’s Uganda during colonialism. 

More about Achiro and her works can be found on her website: www.achiropolwoch.com

Credits: Stephen Kato