Workshops at Pa Gya! (2025)
About
Pa Gya! A Literary Festival in Accra is a three day multi-event literary arts festival with activities such as book readings and launches, talks, performances, prize awards, theatre performances, exhibitions, a book market and many more.
Here is a summary of the workshops open for registration.
Writing Workshop with Professor Jeffery Allen
Applications are open from now to 3rd October, 2025.
Writers at all levels are encouraged to participate in this workshop with noted author Jeffery Renard Allen.
Date: 20th - 22nd October 2025; in-person.
Time: 10:30 AM – 1:30 PM each day
Venue: dot.ateliers, South La, Accra.Open to signed-up participants only.
About the Workshop: The purpose of the workshop is for each writer to receive constructive feedback that will help produce a publishable manuscript.
Facilitator: Retired university professor, Dr. Jeffery Renard Allen is the award-winning author of six books of poetry and fiction. He serves as the Africa Editor for The Evergreen Review. Find out more about him at www.writerjefferyrenardallen.
Please apply here. Poets send up to 15 pages of poetry, single-spaced and with a 12-point font. Prose writers (fiction and creative non-fiction) send up to 25 pages, double-spaced with a 12-point font.This workshop is limited to 12 writers only.
Speculative Fiction and the Power of Collaborative Worldbuilding
Speculative fiction is a broad genre encompassing science fiction, fantasy and magic realism. It allows both writer and reader to imagine alternate realities in the present, future or past. The ability to imagine new worlds, better worlds, determines our ability to make changes in this world. Collaborative worldbuilding takes this a step further by returning storytelling – which has become a largely individualistic and internalised process – to its communal roots.No previous experience in speculative fiction, worldbuilding or storytelling required. All you need is curiosity and the desire to collaborate.
Please apply here.
Date: Friday 17th October 2025; in-person
Time: 12.30 PM - 4.30 PM
Venue: Goethe-Institut, AccraFacilitator: Cheryl Ntumy .
Estranging the Ordinary: Speculative Technologies - Reprogramming the Social Machine
Contemporary speculative fiction goes beyond distant futures, dragons, and dystopias. It is a creative and critical practice for reimagining the systems and “social technologies” that structure our world. In this workshop, participants will explore how speculative writing can act as a laboratory for estranging the ordinary, blurring boundaries between human, machine, and culture, and using language as a tool of imagination.
No prior background in theory or creative writing required; only curiosity, imagination, and a willingness to experiment!
Date: Saturday 18th October 2025; in-person
Venue: Goethe-Institut, Accra.Time: 9.00 AM - 11.00 AM
Facilitator: Pauline Jansen Van Rensburg
This workshop is limited to 20 writers only.
Please apply here.
Techniques for Writing Nonfiction
Date: Friday 17th October 2025; in-person
Venue: Accra, TBD.Time: 12.30 PM - 4.30 PM
Facilitator: Dr Christa Kuljian
Please apply here.
Workshop: Performance Poetry
Date: Friday 17th October 2025; in-person
Venue: Accra, TBD.Time: 12.30 PM - 4.30 PM
About the workshop: In this workshop by poet and spoken word artist, Babs Gons, the focus will be on the performance of poetry.
In the first part, we will work on a poem through a series of writing exercises.
Subsequently we’ll work on stage performance. How do we bring the poems to life on stage? We will focus on things like expression, use of voice, body language, posture, timing and rhythm and we'll end the workshop with a presentation.
This workshop is limited to 16 participants only.
Facilitator: Babs Gons.
Please apply here.
Using character archetypes to shape your story
Time: 1.40 PM - 2.40 PM, Saturday, 18th October 2025.
Venue: GI/Koln.About the Workshop: Sometimes writing a story can feel like an act of discovery rather than an act of creation. This workshop will explore how understanding character archetypes, timeless patterns found in myth and literature, can help you uncover the hidden shape of your narrative. We’ll look at six universal archetypal journeys — the Maiden, the Hero, the Queen, the King, the Crone, and the Mage — and the ways they appear across genres, from fantasy to thrillers. You’ll learn how to identify the archetypal journeys at the heart of your characters and transform their arcs into stories that are resonant and unforgettable.
Facilitator: Temi Oh
Please apply here.
Why Not? (Creative Workshop)
Time: 2.30 PM - 4.30 PM, Friday, 17th October 2025.
Venue: GI/.About the Workshop: We’ve all heard the phrase “think outside the box,” but how often do we truly step beyond the safe and familiar? Why Not? is a high-energy creativity lab where participants explore unconventional perspectives and break free from clichés.
Through guided prompts and collaborative brainstorming, you’ll learn how to flip the expected and create compelling, fresh ideas. No poems or prose will be written—this is about generating powerful creative roadmaps you can apply to writing, speaking, and problem-solving.
Key Takeaways:
- How to identify and avoid cliché thinking.
- Practical techniques to spark unconventional ideas.
- Tools for mapping out fresh creative directions.
- Greater confidence in taking risks with your ideas.
Target Audience: Writers, poets, visual artists, storytellers, corporate innovators, educators, and students.
Facilitator: Hondred Percent
Please apply here.
The Power of Play & Writing
Time: 2.30 PM - 4.30 PM, Friday, 17th October 2025.
Venue: GI/.About the Workshop: To be creative means to connect. It's to abolish the gap between the body, the mind and the soul, between science and art, between fiction and nonfiction. -- Nawal El Saadawi.
How do we as writers learn not to take ourselves too seriously all the time? Traditionally, many of us come to stories as children from a place of wonder, excitement and intrigue. Storytellers understood the art of performance, and in performance there is the art of play. Playing is crucial to our learning and fuels our imagination and boosts our joy. Writing, in its nature, requires discipline. Discipline requires flow. Flow requires surrender. Regardless of the subject matter or genre you write in, by learning to tap into your own art of play, you invite surrender and flow into your discipline.
This workshop will support you in carving those joyful tools through movement, self-reflection and imaginative play to identify your natural flow once you move past ‘seriousness’. Play is innate. When we incorporate it into our writing discipline, we connect to a deeper knowing and appreciation of what we can create.
Experience: Open to all, experience not necessary.
Facilitator: Marcelle Mateki Akita
Please apply here.
Zine Making Workshop with Pure Wata Zine
Time: 2.30 PM - 4.30 PM, Friday, 17th October 2025.
Venue: GI/.About the Workshop: Zines are self-published magazines that have a long history in knowledge dissemination, resistance and community organising.
At Pure Wata Zine, we publish work by a range of creatives and weave together different snippets to build a living archive of creative life in Accra and beyond. Our slogan ‘Art, like water, is for everyone’ seeks to capture how art is found in the seemingly mundane everyday – preserving the heart of DIY publishing. We invite you to a hands-on workshop where we’ll guide you through our creative practice at Pure Wata Zine, discuss the history of zine-making and create our very own zines. Whether you want to get your writing out there, overcome writer’s block, or find new ways to journal, zines can be a powerful medium to explore. You’ll be guided through the process of creating your own mini-zines using collaging, drawing, and writing to craft personal narratives. No prior experience is needed – just curiosity and a willingness to experiment. Art supplies will be provided, but feel free to bring personal print-outs, photos or writing to include in your zine.Facilitator: Miriam Emefa Dzah
Please apply here.