Junior African Writers Series Bookset Levels 1 – 2 (20 titles)

Amu Djoleto was born at Manya Kpogunor, Manya Krobo, Ghana, the son of Frederick Badu, a Presbyterian minister, and Victoria Shome Tetteh, "a modest trader". He was educated at Accra Academy and St. Augustine's College, Cape Coast before reading English at the University of Ghana. He joined Ghana's Ministry of Education in the 1960s as a teacher and education officer. After studying textbook production at the Institute of Education, University of London, he returned to Ghana to edit the Ghana Teachers' Journal. At one point heading the Ministry of Education's publishing programme, he has continued to work for the Ministry of Education.

Djoleto contributed to the poetry anthologies Voices of Ghana (1958) and Messages (1970), and his poems were collected in Amid the Swelling Act.[2] He is best known for his novels, the first of which was The Strange Man (1967).

Novels

- The Strange Man, London, Heinemann, 1967. African Writers Series, no. 41.
- Money Galore, London [etc.]: Heinemann, 1975. African Writers Series, no. 160.
- Hurricane of Dust, 1987

Poetry

- Amid the Swelling Act, 1992

Children's books

- Obodai Sai, 1990
- Twins in Trouble, 1991
- The Frightened Thief, 1992
- The Girl who Knows about Cars, 1996
- Kofi Loses his Way, 1996
- Akos and the Fire Ghost, 1998

Other

- English practice for the African student, 1967; (ed. with T. H. S. Kwami) West African Prose, Heinemann Educational Books, 1972.
- The Ghana Book Development Council: aims and objectives, 1976
- Books and reading in Ghana, 1985

Anokye Wiredu was born and grew up in Ghana. After working for a company in that country for some years, he trained as a teacher. While teaching, he began to write for children. He is now retired, but is still writing stories.

Anthony Umelo was born in England but grew up in Nigeria – his family returned there just before the outbreak of the civil war. After graduating from the University of Calabar in southern Nigeria, he taught English language and literature for some years in other parts of the country. He currently lives in the UK.

Ayebia Ribeiro-Ayeh was born and grew up in Ghana. She studied business in England, where she now works for a publisher. Her stories are inspired by those she heard from her grandmother tell years ago. Now a mother herself, she hope to continue the story-telling tradition.

A prolific writer widely regarded as “the leading writer of Children's literature in Uganda”, Barbara Kimenye is among the first Anglophone Ugandan women writers to be published in Central and East Africa. Her stories are extensively read in Uganda and beyond and have been widely used in African schools.

Kimenye was born in England, in 1929, but by her own admission considers herself Ugandan by birth. She has been quoted as saying that details about her early life “have no bearing” upon her career as a writer. Kimenye studied nursing at Hammersmith, London, where she met and married her Tanzanian husband prior to moving to Uganda in the early 1950s.

Dan Fulani is a Nigerian fiction writer with 16 published books to his credit since 1981, who has tried to highlight development issues through his popular fiction.

Dan Fulani was brought up on the Mambilla Plateau, northern Nigeria and educated at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His first published works told the adventures of a young northern Nigerian boy called Sauna and the Sauna stories spread throughout Africa and were in high demand as readers in Southern and East African schools. He later wrote on more contentious themes in particular, 'The Price of Liberty', which told the story of a pesticide, banned in the US, being dumped on Africa. Other themes included a campaign against milk powder, 'The Fight for Life', and drugs, 'Sauna and the Drug Pedlars'.

His books have been published by many of the UK's leading publishers including Macmillan, Hodder and Stoughton, Longman and Nelson and also in Nigeria by Bounty Press and Safari. The Sauna series featured in a northern Nigeria television series.

F.M. Mlekwa was born and grew up in Tanzania, where she still lives with her husband and five children. She works in the field of education, planning and developing English language materials for young children.

Fatou Keita was born in Cote d'Ivoire. She studied in France, England and the USA, before returning home to teach English literature at the University of Abidjan.

Kwasi Koranteng was born and educated in Ghana. After University, he worked as an editor with various publishing houses in Ghana and, then with the Ghana Book Development Council as a Book Development Officer. He has also taught for a few years in Nigeria. He is now on retirement but still actively pursues writing, a hobby which is very dear to his heart.

Kwasi Koranteng has authored over twelve titles with some winning awards such as the Valco Fund Literary Award and the Ghana Book Award. Kwasi writes stories for children and young adults and says there is no retirement for the writer.

Leona E. Chilemba was born in New York but has lived in Malawi since 1964. Working as both a nurse and a teacher, she always enjoyed telling stories to her young patients and her young pupils. She and her husband have two dogs - one of which, while she was writing this story, had eleven puppies!

Richard Moverley was born and brought up in Yorkshire, in the north of England. After university, he taught English before setting out to travel the world. In Cairo, he regularly visited Fishawi's cafe, which features in 'Revenge of the Gods'. He now lives back in Yorkshire, writing travel articles and English language learning materials as well as teaching in local schools.

He is married with two daughters.

Shirley Boje has spent most of her adult life living in South Africa. For three years she worked as a freelance journalist for Farmer’s Weekly, and contributed to other local magazines which published human interest stories.