Poetic Wednesdays Initiative Announces New Creative Director

Poetic Wednesday Initiative has announced the appointment of Naseeba Babale as its new Creative Director.

The literary organisation which promotes literature and literary activities in Northern Nigeria and recently organised the Kano International Poetry Festival, announced this appointment on the 5th of August, 2024.

Salim Yunusa, the founder of Poetic Wednesdays Initiative, said, “The appointment is a historic one, making Nasiba the first woman to lead a literary organization in Kano and among a very few women to lead a literary organization in Nigeria and Africa at large. We have no doubt that Nasiba is going to take the organization to loftier heights.”

Naseeba Babale is a medical laboratory scientist with Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. She formerly served as the Secretary of Poetic Wednesdays Initiative. She was the moderator for Glass door Initiative’s Poetically Written Prose contest from 2019 to 2021, and the second runner up for the 2018 edition of the same contest. She was a Co-organizer of TEDxAminuKanoWay in 2019. She was one of the judges of the 2020 edition of The Nigerian Students Prize organized by Poets in Nigeria. Her poems have been published by Brittle Paper, African Writer Magazine, Ghost City Press and others. She was shortlisted for the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Prize 2023.

Babale was a columnist for Konya Shams Rumi and a lover of arts. She co-curated the maiden editon of Kano International Poetry Festival. She is the author of the chapbook The Rain is Like You (Konya Shams Rumi, 2023) and the poetry collection Pickled Moments (Konya Shams rumi, 2024). She hails from Kano State, Nigeria