Nana Awere Damoah

Nana Awere Damoah is a chemical engineer who writes in his spare time. He has six books, mixing personal reflection, satire, poetry and short fiction set in Ghana.

Kotobabi to Nottingham

He was born in Accra on 3 June 1975 and grew up in Kotobabi, attending Providence Preparatory School from 1979 to 1986 and Ghana National College in Cape Coast from 1986 to 1993. He studied chemical engineering at KNUST from 1994 to 1999, and a Chevening scholarship took him to the University of Nottingham for a master's in the same field in 2005-06. He has worked as a technical manager in Lagos. He led the Christian music ministry Joyful Way Incorporated as national president from 2002 to 2004. He and his wife, Vivian, have three children and live in Tema.

Writing

He began writing seriously in sixth form at Ghana National College, where his first piece, "A Day in Carthage", came out of a history lesson. His stories appeared in the Mirror and the Spectator, and "The Written Letter" won first prize in Step Magazine's national story competition in 1997. He describes his early books as reflective writing: both Through the Gates of Thought and his debut, Excursions in My Mind, draw heavily on his own life. Tales from Different Tails is a short story collection that borrows from Ghanaian fireside storytelling. His work has also appeared in StoryTime, the Legon Business Journal, Sentinel Nigeria and the 2010 anthology African Roar.