Doreen Baingana

Raised in Entebbe, Doreen Baingana attended Gayaza High School and obtained a law degree from Makerere University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland, College Park. Immediately thereafter, she was appointed writer-in-residence at the Jiménez-Porter Writers House.She embarked on a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland in 2023.

Baingana won the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction in 2003 for her collection Tropical Fish. It was published by the University of Massachusetts Press and Broadway Books in the US, Oshun Books in South Africa, and Cassava Republic Press in Nigeria. It has been translated into Swedish and Spanish. It is forthcoming in French. The linked stories, which explore the lives of three sisters growing up in Entebbe after the fall of Idi Amin, have been described by Publishers Weekly as "richly detailed stories" that are "lush with cultural commentary."[2]

Baingana has published two children's books as well as short stories, essays, and articles in numerous journals and magazines including; The Georgia Review, The Evergreen Review, The African American Review, Chelsea, Glimmer Train, Callaloo, Agni, The Caravan: A Journal of Politics and Culture, Transition, The Guardian, Chimurenga, Kwani?, Farafina and Ibua. Her stories have been broadcast on Voice of America and BBC and have been included in many anthologies including Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing;[3] The Granta Anthology of African Fiction,[4] Cultural Transformations (OneWorld), New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby, 2019).[5]and Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices.

Baingana was a contractor with Voice of America for a decade and taught at the Writer's Center, Bethesda, MD before returning to Uganda. She was a managing editor of Storymoja Africa, a Kenyan publisher, and chairperson of FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers Association. She co-founded and directs the Mawazo Africa Writing Institute[6] and leads creative writing workshops across Africa.[7]

The title story of Baingana's award-winning collection Tropical Fish has been adapted to the stage and performed at the Kampala International Theatre Festival (KITF 2016)[8] and four other venues in Kampala, as well as the AfriCologne Theatre Festival in Cologne, Germany, in 2017.[9] Another of Baingana's short stories, "Hills of Salt and Sugar", was adapted and staged at KITF 2018.[10]

Baingana has been a judge for prizes including; The Afritondo Short Story Prize,[11] the 9mobile Prize for Literature,[12] the Commonwealth Short Story Prize,[13] the Golden Baobab Prize[14] and the Hurston-Wright Prize for Debut Fiction.

• 2002: D.C. Commission of the Arts and Humanities Artist's Grant
• 2003: Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction[15]
• 2004, 2005 & 2021: Caine Prize, finalist[16][17]
• 2004: Bread Loaf Writers Conference Scholar[18]
• 2004: Washington Independent Writers Fiction Prize[19]
• 2005: Bread Loaf Writers Conference Michael and Marylee Fairbanks International Fellow
• 2006: Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Africa Region[20]
• 2006: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, finalist[21]
• 2011: Norman Mailer Center Fellowship in Fiction
• 2014: Miles Morland Scholarship[22][23][24]
• 2017: Rockefeller Bellagio Artist's Residency[25]
• 2020: Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant, finalist
• 2020: Tebere Arts Foundation Playwright Residency[26]
• 2021: Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant.
• 2022: La Porte Peinte Residency.
• 2022: The Gretchen J. Bryant Freedom to Write Distinguished Fellowship.

• Jennifer Ludden, "A View of Contemporary Uganda in 'Tropical Fish'", NPR, 6 February 2005
• Christina Lee, "Writer's Shock: Author Doreen Baingana Prepares to Pen a Travelogue From Memory", Washington City Paper, 18 November 2010.