Crossing Borders was an exciting initiative developed by the British Council, Lancaster University and a range of partners in Africa.  It was a cross-cultural distance-learning project for young African writers working in the fields of poetry, prose, fiction and children’s writing.

Each writer on the scheme was linked to an experienced professional UK writer who gave close attention to participants work through e-mail exchange.  The programme consisted of six email tutorials over six months.  At the end of the e-mail exchange a series of live writing workshops and public readings were delivered by a visiting writer and participants on the programme.

Attention to the participant was personal and specific where participants directed their own learning through correspondence with their mentor.  A portfolio of new writing was developed and revised.  The writing journal, which collated the entire experience of the course, were drawn upon in the context of new creative work.

The programme broke the isolation of young African writers, promoted writing development, library usage, cultural exchange and a greater knowledge of contemporary literature in English.  It also aimed to enrich the literary and cultural lives of writers in the UK working as mentors on the scheme.