₦airaland Forum

Two budding Amazons, Hajo Isa and Stella Iyimoga, working in poetry and film will feature at the October 26 Guest Writer Session of the Abuja Writers Forum (AWF).

Ms Hajo Isa is a poet and author of the much acclaimed anthology of poems titled Shadow Fall 2012). Hailed for their poetic originality and lyricism. She is one of the three featured at the Abuja literary Society's Emerging Voices Rising stars debut series in 2010. She is a budding contemporary poet, with a raw, quirky and simple style with a rich eclectic mix of language and feeling.

Hajo who hails from Zuru Local Government Area of Kebbi State, was born in Lagos and is the first of four children born to Colonel A.K Isa and Ladi Dazieni Isa (nee Namah). She spent her childhood growing up in Lagos, Jos, Enugu and Kaduna. She had her secondary school education at Federal Government College Jos, where she developed a love for literature. She then went on to study law at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and Nigerian Law School, Bwari, Abuja.

Hajo is also a photographer and a trustee of the Ladi Dazieni Isa foundation set up in honour of her mother. Hajo is also an entrepreneur and Manager of Aitadi Nigerian Limited producers and marketers of Shea Butter based Beauty Products. She is an avid literary and art enthusiast, and is a member of some literary associations in Abuja including the Abuja Literary Society, Association of Nigerian Authors, Abuja Chapter and the Abuja Writers Forum.

Many of Hajo's poems are published in national and international online blogs, literal magazines and anthologies and she will be reading from her latest collection of poems, Dancing Tongues. .

Ananga Stella Iyimoga hails from Nassarawa State but was born and bred in Jos. She attended St Louis College, Jos, and took her first degree in English at the University of Jos. However, given her passion for the art of filmmaking, she enrolled at the New York Film Academy.

Ananga has written, produced, directed and edited four short films and a music video. They are: "Your Passport, Please", "Fatal Mistake", "For Love or Country", "Same Difference" (work in progress) and a music video for KASA, a Kenyan musician.

Being a total filmmaker, she has occupied various crew positions for different productions e.g DOP, sound mixer/boom operator, gaffer and has also acted in two of her short films, "Your Passport, Please" and "For love or Country" and one other film titled "The Marriage of the Ladybird" by Hassan Khusshaim in Abu Dhabi.

She has been script supervisor for an independently produced short film titled "The Traveller" by Ag Musaab. It was screened at the 2011 Cannes film festival. She recently directed a 13 Episode documentary for Tertiary Education Trust fund (TETFUND) which is currently airing on NTA Network. Her dream is to make movies with high production value that can be enjoyed and appreciated globally.

She would be screening her short film, "For Love or Country", which tells the story of Bala, a Nigerian, a Medical Doctor based in the UAE who is frustrated with Nigeria and intends to settle in the UAE. He proposes to his girlfriend Kemi also a Nigerian studying in the UAE, but she has plans to return to Nigeria to make a contribution to its development and wishes Bala would do the same.

The Guest Writer Session, which started in June 2008, holds at the prestigious Nanet Suites located at the Central Business District in Abuja, and runs from 4-7pm on the last Saturday of every month. It also features side attractions of poetry performance, mini art exhibition, a raffle-draw for book, and a stirring dose of live music.