Nana Awere Damoah
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Nana Awere Damoah (born 3 June 1975,
Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...
) is a Ghanaian author. He has six books to his credit. Damoah, who is a British Council Chevening alumnus with a master's degree in
chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
from the
University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
, works as a Technical Manager in
Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
,
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...


Life

Born in
Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...
,
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
, Damoah speaks fondly of growing in the suburb of Kotobabi, in the Ghanaian capital, where he started his education at the local Providence Preparatory School from 1979 to 1986. He spent all his secondary school years (1986 to 1993) at
Ghana National College Ghana National College is a senior high school in Cape Coast, Ghana. Overview Ghana National College was founded on 20 July 1948, staffed by dismissed teachers from St Augustine's College and Mfantsipim School.''Hon. Lee Ocran, Member of Par ...
,
Cape Coast Cape Coast is a city, fishing port, and the capital of Cape Coast Metropolitan District and Central Region of Ghana. It is one of the country's most historic cities, a World Heritage Site, home to the Cape Coast Castle, with the Gulf of Guinea ...
. After leaving secondary school, he got admission at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in
Kumasi Kumasi (historically spelled Comassie or Coomassie, usually spelled Kumase in Twi) is a city in the Ashanti Region, and is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region near Lake Bosomtwe, and is the ...
, in 1994. There, he pursued a bachelor's degree in
chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
and completed in 1999. Damoah got a scholarship through the British Council Chevening Programme to do his master's degree in Chemical Engineering at the
University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
, UK, from 2005 to 2006. He is an associate of Joyful Way Incorporated, a Christian Music Ministry in Ghana, where he was the group's national president from 2002 to 2004. Nana Awere Damoah is married to Vivian, with whom he has three children. The couple and their children, Nana Kwame Bassanyin, Nana Yaw Appiah, and Maame Esi Akoah, are based in Tema, Ghana.


Writing

Damoah started writing seriously in 1993 when he was in the sixth form at Ghana National College. He wrote his first creative piece, "A Day in Carthage", in a History class. He has had a number of his short stories published in local Ghanaian newspapers, the ''Mirror'' and the ''Spectator''. In 1997, he won the first prize in the ''Step Magazine'' National Story Writing Competition with the story
The Written Letter
. His writing has appeared in StoryTime ezine, ''Legon Business Journal'', ''Sentinel Nigeria Magazine'' and the anthology ''African Roar'' (StoryTime Publishing, 2010). Nana Awere Damoah's writings cannot be classified into a particular genre of writing. According to him, "I just try write and create my own style". His first two books, ''Excursions in My Mind'' and ''Through the Gates of Thought'', are mostly autobiographical in nature and he calls them "reflective writing". For his
non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...
writing, he tries to bring a mix of styles –
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
,
storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pre ...
and
satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
. He uses a lot of personal experiences and observations. ''Tales from Different Tails'', his third book, is straightforward
fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
; short stories. In that book, he uses local settings and experiments with some traditional Ghanaian by-the-fireside sort of narrative. His last two books, ''I Speak of Ghana'' and ''Sebitically Speaking'', he categorizes under travel and historical non-fiction and mostly narratives on Ghana, with a good dose of satire in them as well. Nana Awere Damoah and his friend,
Kofi Akpabli Kofi Akpabli (born 18 December 1973, Accra) is a Ghanaian academic, journalist, publisher, tourism consultant and cultural activist. He is a two-time winner of the CNN Multichoice African Journalist for Arts and Culture Awards. His latest work 'Ma ...
organize quarterly book reading events in various cities in Ghana. This initiative started since 2011.


Books

Nana Awere Damoah is the author of six books; all of which he self-published. Non-fiction:
''Nsempiisms''
(2016)
''Sebitically Speaking''
(2015)
''I Speak of Ghana''
(2013)
''Through the Gates of Thought''
(2010)
''Excursions in my Mind''
(2008) Fiction: * A collection of short stories
''Tales from Different Tails''
(2011)]. He has contributed to two anthologies and he keeps personal blogs a
www.nanadamoah.com
an
www.nanaaweredamoah.wordpress.com
and is a columnist o
www.infoboxdaily.com


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Damoah, Nana Awere 1975 births Living people Ghanaian writers Ghanaian male poets Academic staff of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology People from Accra Ghana National College alumni