Jackee Budesta Batanda is a

Ugandan }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southe ...

journalist,Jackee Budesta Batanda profile page
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 10 April 2014. writer and entrepreneur.Invitation to the November Writing Workshop – with writers Jackee Batanda and Shafinaaz Hassim 30 October 2013
, allaboutwritingcourses.com. Retrieved 10 April 2014. She is a senior managing partner with Success Spark Brand Limited, a communications and educational company, and a co-founder of Mastermind Africa Group Limited, a business-networking group."About me"
jackeebatanda.com. Retrieved 16 April 2014. In 2006, Batanda worked as a peace writer at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

.San Diego. 2006 Peace Writers
sandiego.edu.Retrieved 4 April 2014. She was later awarded a research fellowship at the highly competitive Justice in Africa fellowship Programme with the

Institute for Justice and Reconciliation The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) is a non-governmental organisation and think tank based in Cape Town, South Africa. It was forged out of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2000. The aim was to ensure that less ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, South Africa, in 2008."Transitional Justice in Africa Programme Fellowship Alumni"
, IJR. Retrieved 12 April 2014. In 2010, Batanda was International Writer-in-Residence at the Housing Authors and Literature Denmark,"Former participating authors: Jackee Batanda, Uganda (H.A.L.D. 2010)"
Hald Hovedgaard. Retrieved 12 April 2014. where she commenced work on her novel, ''A Lesson in Forgetting''. In 2012, she was also featured in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' alongside 19 young women shaping the future of Africa."20 movers and shakers in Africa"
''The Times'', Saturday, 12 April. Retrieved 12 April 2014. That same year she was also a finalist in the 2012 Trust Women journalism Awards.trustwomenconf
.Retrieved 12 April 2014. She has been writer-in-residence at

Lancaster University Lancaster University (legally The University of Lancaster) is a public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several pla ...

in the UK.Jackee Batanda (Uganda/South Africa)
Centre for Creative Arts. Retrieved 10 April 2014. She was selected by the

International Women's Media Foundation The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical so ...

as the 2011–12 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow.IWMF Fellows
iwmf.org. Retrieved 12 April 2014. During the fellowship, she studied at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

's Center for International Studies and other Boston-area universities, and worked at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''. She is a recipient of the 2010 Uganda Young Achievers Awards in the Corporate and Professionals category and a Justice in Africa program fellowship. She has worked as a freelance journalist with the

Global Press Institute The Global Press Institute is a Washington DC-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that builds and maintains news bureaus in some of the world's least-covered places, staffed by local women journalists whose social, historical and political cont ...

, an online newswire, and was previously a senior Communications Officer with the Refugee Law Project of the Faculty of Law at

Makerere University Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of ni ...

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, Uganda.Jackee Batanda , 2011/12
IWMF. Retrieved 10 April 2014. She is one of the 39 African writers announced as part of the

Africa39 Africa39 was a collaborative project initiated by the Hay Festival in partnership with Rainbow Book Club, celebrating Port Harcourt: UNESCO World Book Capital 2014 by identifying 39 of the most promising writers under the age of 40 with the potent ...

project unveiled by Rainbow,

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...

and

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

at the

London Book Fair The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and di ...

in April 2014. It is a list of 39 of Sub-Saharan Africa's most promising writers under the age of 40.Africa39 "list of artists"
Hay Festival. Retrieved 9 April 2014.Caroline Carpenter

''The Bookseller'', 8 April 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2014.Akintayo Abodunrin
"Chimamanda, Tope Folarin, Stanley Kenani, others make Africa 39 list"
, ''CityVoice'', 9 April 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2014."Africa 39 List is out". 9 April 2014.
Lesleigh. Retrieved 10 April 2014."Jackee Budesta BATANDA"
hayfestival.com. Retrieved 11 April 2014.Africa39 Authors Biographies
, hayfestival.com. Retrieved 11 April 2014.

Early life and education

Batanda is a Samia from the eastern part of

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

. She studied at Mary Hill High School in

Mbarara Mbarara City is a city in the Western Region of Uganda and the second largest city in Uganda after Kampala. The city is divided into 6 boroughs of Kakoba Division, Kamukuzi Division, Nyamitanga Division, Biharwe Division, Kakiika Division, Nyakay ...

, Bweranyangi Girls' Secondary School in

Bushenyi Bushenyi is a town in Western Uganda. It is the 'chief town' of Bushenyi District and the district headquarters are located there. The district is named after the town, in keeping with the practice in most of the districts in the country. Locat ...

and St. Paul's College in

Mbale Mbale is a city in the Eastern Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial center of Mbale District and the surrounding sub-region. Location Mbale is approximately , by road, northeast of Kampala, Uganda's capita ...

. She holds a master's degree in forced migration studies from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and an undergraduate degree in communications from

in Uganda.

Writing

Batanda has been writing professionally for over ten years both as a freelance journalist for national papers–''The Sunday Vision'' and ''Sunday Monitor''–and as a writer of fiction. Among her numerous awards for fiction writing is winning the

Commonwealth Short Story Competition Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

, 2003, and being shortlisted for the Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa, 2003. Her work has been performed on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

, BBC 3 and other radio stations around the Commonwealth.Mildred Barya
"Happy Times With Jackee B Batanda" (interview)
Mildred Barya's House of Life. Retrieved 10 April 2014."Ugandan Writers: Meet Jackee Budesta Batanda"
AfroLit. Retrieved 10 April 2014."An Evaluation: Talking to Jackee Budesta Batanda"
, ''Mazwi – A Zimbabwean Journal''. Retrieved 10 April 2014."Ugandan journalist joins the Center for International Studies"
''MIT News''. Retrieved 10 April 2014."Jackee Batanda"
''Global Press Journal''. Retrieved 10 April 2014. Batanda has written numerous short stories that have been published in various anthologies, including the titles "The Thing That Ate Your Brain", "Holding onto the Memories" and "Dora's Turn", among others. She has written for Transitions on the Foreign Policy magazine website, the ''New York Times'', ''Boston Globe'', ''Latitude News'', the ''Global Post'', ''The Star'', the ''

Mail&Guardian The ''Mail & Guardian'' is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, local arts, music and popular cultu ...

'', the ''Sunday Vision'' and ''

Sunday Monitor The ''Daily Monitor'' is a Ugandan independent daily newspaper. Its name is shared by the ''Saturday Monitor'' and ''Sunday Monitor'', which are also published by Monitor Publications Limited. ''Daily Monitor'' averaged a daily circulation of 24,2 ...

''. Batanda is a member of the Uganda Women Writers Association

FEMRITE FEMRITE – Uganda Women Writers' Association, founded in 1995, is an NGO based in Kampala, Uganda, whose programmes focus on developing and publishing women writers in Uganda and—more recently—in the East African region. ...

,FEMRITE Achievements and Milestones
femriteug.org. Retrieved 16 April 2014. and she has been Writer-in-Residence at Lancaster University,
, Lancaster University. Retrieved 16 April 2014. where she worked on ''The Big Picture'', a collaborative book with three writers from the north west. She has been fellow on the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

's Crossing Borders programme.Budesta Batanda , Project participant in Uganda"
Crossing Borders, British Council. Retrieved 11 April 2014. She was regional winner of the 2003 Commonwealth Short Story Competition
allafrica.com. Retrieved 16 April 2014. and has been highly commended for the

Caine Prize for African Writing The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 20 ...

and shortlisted for the Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa."Macmillan Releases Shortlist of Writer's Prize"
ghanaweb.com. Retrieved 16 April 2014. She has published a children's book, ''The Blue Marble'', in conjunction with UNESCO-Paris and Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana). Her stories have been published in various journals and short story anthologies, including ''

Farafina Farafina is a music and dance group from Burkina Faso, established in 1978. The eight-member group is Burkina Faso's best known musical group, and one of Africa's most internationally prominent musical groups. History The group was founded ...

'', ''

Edinburgh Review The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929. ''Edinburgh Review'', ...

'', ''Moving Worlds'', ''Gifts of Harvest'', ''The Spirit of the Commonwealth'', ''

Wasafiri ''Wasafiri'' is a quarterly British literary magazine covering international contemporary writing. Founded in 1984, the magazine derives its name from a Swahili word meaning "travellers" that is etymologically linked with the Arabic word "safari" ...

'', ''Jazz'', ''Miracles and Dreams'', among places, and she is a contributor to

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

's 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

''. She has completed two projects, ''Everyday People'', a collection of short stories, and ''Our Time of Sorrow'', a novel.

Published works

Non fiction

*"Seeking Freedom Among the Ruins: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Shukrije Gashi", Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, March 2007. * "For Our Children", in

Short stories

*"The Thing That Ate Your breakfast", in *"My Mother Dances in the Dark", in *"1 4 the Road…till 4am", in *"Remember Atita", in * "A Pocket Full of Dreams", in * "Dora's Turn", in * "Dance with Me", in * "Stella", in * "Life Sucks…Sometimes", in * "Dance with me", in * "A Job for Mundu", in
"Waiting on the frangipani tree"
in ''Per Contra'', 2012

* "The Rule of the Game", in ''Forma Fluens'', October 2010 * "Holding on to the Memories", in ''Feminist and Online Scholar Journal'', 2009 *"Aciro's Song", in ''Wasafiri'', June 2007, and ''Edinburgh Review'', August 2006 *"The Rule of the Game" in ''Crossing Borders Magazine'', October 2006 *"I Took her a Hibiscus", in ''The Sunday Monitor'', December 2005 *"City Link", in ''Moving Worlds'' journal, December 2005 *"Dora's Turn", Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) CD, October 2004 *"Bahati from Bunia", in ''World View'', June–August, 2004 *"It was Eden", in Masscom Online, 2002 *"Four Sweets Please", in ''Dhana'', March 2002 *"Tears of Sky", in ''New Era Magazine'', 2002 *"Radio Africa", in ''Win Magazine'', September 2001

Awards and recognition

*Listed among 39 top writers from Africa –

, April 2014 *April winner of the Real Wealth & Success for Real People Scholarship, Loral Langemeier Millionaire Maker, April 2014 *2012 finalist, Trust Women Journalist Award, October 2012, Thomson Reuters Foundation and ''International Herald Tribune'' *London ''Times'' "20 women shaping the future of Africa", 19 March 2012 *2011–2012 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow, September 2011 – March 2012, Boston and New York City *Young Achievers Award 2010 – Corporate and Professionals, 3 December 2010 *Global Press Institute Online Photo Essay Training Award, October 2010 – March 2011 *International Writer-in-Residence, Housing Authors and Literature Denmark (H.A.L.D), Viborg, Denmark, July–August 2010 *Fellow in Transitional Justice in Africa Programme,

, Cape Town, South Africa, October–November 2008 *Scholarship to attend "Crafting Human Security in an Insecure World Conference", Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, University of San Diego, USA, September 2008 *Post-graduate Merit Award,

, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2006. *Forced Migration Studies Departmental Grant, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2006 *Appointed writer-in-residence,

and Litfest, Lancaster, UK, January–March 2005 *Highly commended for the

, 2004 *Highly commended for the

, 2004 *Shortlisted for Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa, 2004 *Africa Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, 2003 *Thrice selected as fellow on the Crossing Borders an African Writers' Mentoring Scheme run by British Council 2002/2003, 2003/2004, 2004

References

External links

Author's website
*

Beatrice Lamwaka Beatrice Lamwaka (born and raised in Alokolum, Gulu) is a Ugandan writer. She was shortlisted for the 2011 Caine Prize for her story "Butterfly Dreams".

"Batanda is opening doors to the world with her pen"
''Daily Monitor'', 2 May 2014.

''Daily Monitor'', 25 April 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Batanda, Jackee Budesta Living people Ugandan writers Ugandan women writers Makerere University alumni University of the Witwatersrand alumni People educated at Bweranyangi Girls' Senior Secondary School Ugandan women short story writers Ugandan short story writers Year of birth missing (living people)