Amidst the political turmoil of election seasons, it's easy to overlook the rich tapestry of cultures that make up our nation. To celebrate this diversity, we're featuring three talented Storyshares authors: Kugu, Kaeoli, and Pius. These impactful authors have each contributed meaningful and important stories to our library, and continue to remind us how much we can and should learn from each other.
Kugu Scott
Kugu Scott is one of our authors with invaluable international experience. In 2022, she was a volunteer for the European Union Funded Ukrainian War Refugee Camp in Belgium. In her own words, “We met youth who moved to Europe and often left behind their friends, family, and lives. It was life changing to hear their personal accounts of how they felt, the things they experienced, and even the lessons they learned.” The moving experience motivated Kugu to submit her winning story One Million Steps to Freedom to the 2022 Storyshares Story of the Year Contest. October 18th, 2024 marks the 966th day of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the largest conflict in Europe since World War II. As viewers behind iPhone screens grow increasingly desensitized to the scale of the ongoing human suffering, authors like Kugu personalize the turmoil for readers, and amplify the stories that need to be heard.
Kaeoli Sapp
Kaeoli Sapp is an undergraduate student of Journalism and Creative Writing at Northwestern University. She grew up in Mozambique, and spent her childhood watching Nigerian television. It was this exposure that inspired her Storyshares publication, Adesewa’s Snake. This book is set in Nigeria, and follows the life of a girl who is bullied for a mere physical difference from her peers. Readers follow her on her journey towards self-acceptance, and in doing so, learn about the unique and prominent mythology of Nigeria. Nigeria hosts the largest population on the African continent, and there are nearly 400,000 Nigerian immigrants and their children living in the United States today. The population has received recognition in recent years with the rise of Nigerian singer Burna Boy, whom Rolling Stone magazine named one of the Great Singers of All Time in 2023, and, more broadly, the popularity of Afrobeats, a genre of music that has roots in Nigeria. Kaeoli’s writing provides readers with an inspiring story of discovery and a unique insight into the country that plays a growing role in American popular culture.
Pius Agbangbatin
Pius Agbangbatin is a professional translator and author from Benin, in West Africa. He won the Storyshares 2021 Story of the Year Contest with his book Born in Danger, which tells the story of Dulani, a young albino boy from Malawi. 1 in 130 people in Malawi have albinism, 40 percent of whom are primary and secondary school age, according to the United Nations. Killings and human rights violations against albino children are not uncommon, deterring their parents from sending them to school, and the Malawian albino population therefore has a low rate of education. Similar cases of violence have been reported in neighboring countries like Tanzania and Mozambique. Pius says, “I'm quite aware of the hardships that people with albinism are faced in a few African countries, so I thought using a story to depict that situation could be a way to help things change.” Pius’s writing sheds light on a dangerously underrepresented population and the oppression it faces largely unbeknownst to the international community.
Discover more from these talented authors -- and so many others! -- in the Storyshares eLibrary.