Harriet Anena is a Ugandan writer whose works include poetry, nonfiction and fiction. She is the author of a collection of poems, A Nation In Labour, published in 2015. Anena worked with the Daily Monitor newspaper as a reporter, sub-editor, and deputy chief sub-editor from 2009 to September 2014. Her journalistic articles have been published in the Daily Monitor, New Vision, and The Observer. She has also taught specialised writing at the Islamic University in Uganda.
Anena wrote her first poem, "The plight of the Acholi child", in 2003. It won a writing competition organised by the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative and helped secure her a bursary for A-Level education. She attended the 2013 Caine Prize workshop held in Uganda, and her story "Watchdog Games" was published in the anthology A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013. In 2013, she was shortlisted for the "Ghana Poetry prize" for her poem "We arise". A Nation In Labour, published in 2015, is her debut book, a "socially conscious" collection of poems, about which she has said: "I explore my experiences as a child who lived through the LRA insurgency in northern Uganda and the post-war period. Today, I still keenly watch how people are piecing back the torn pieces of their lives; but also the post-war challenge." The reviewer for New Vision wrote: "Anena and her buffet of poetry will keep you hooked." As described by Tomiwa Ilori, "A Nation in Labour is a four-part treatise that uses elevated language to tell of horror. Anena’s collection of poetry warns society about its warped value system through a disciplined use of satiric responses that resonate. Each part of the treatise soaks our humanity in fluid cadences." The Ugandan Observer's review said: "Anena craftily uses simple language, but with diction that leaves the reader challenged to take action to better the situation." In November 2018, A Nation In Labour was shortlisted for the biennial Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, alongside collections by Tanure Ojaide and Servio Gbadamosi. On 9 December 2018, at an award ceremony held in Lagos, Anena and Ojaide were announced as joint winners, chosen by judges Toyin Falola, Olu Obafemi and Margaret Busby, the presentation being made by Professor Wole Soyinka. Anena's short story "Dancing with Ma" was longlisted for the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa.
Awards
In December 2018, Harriet Anena was named as joint winner of the 2018 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa for her book A Nation in Labour, published in 2015. She jointly won the prize with Professor Tanure Ojaide. Anena received her award at a ceremony in Lagos, Nigeria, attended by Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in literature, after whom the prize is named. The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature is a "pan-African writing prize awarded biennially to the best literary work produced by an African".
