Achiro Patricia Olwoch, hailing from Gulu in Northern Uganda, is an award-winning writer,

director, and producer currently living in exile in New York. A former Weiss International Fellow

and Scholar at Risk at Barnard College (2023/2024), Achiro has received numerous accolades for

her groundbreaking works, including the TV series Coffee Shop as creator and writer, Yat Madit as

head writer, and her acclaimed short films The Surrogate, The Mineral Basket, and Maraya Ni.

Deeply passionate about connecting history to contemporary realities, Achiro recently completed

three manuscripts left behind by her late father, who passed away in 1992. Her debut novel, The

End of Swahili Lines, is set in 1950s Uganda during colonial rule. She is also working on two

forthcoming books: a memoir chronicling her life from being born in exile, enduring the war in

Northern Uganda, to her current life in exile, and another that explores the anti-homosexuality

law, following the journey of a former child soldier navigating this fraught landscape.

Achiro's written works have been published in Guernica Magazine, Exposition Review, Westbeth

Online Newsletter, and Pen America. More recently she has an article in Adi Magazine: Born into

Exile. Her play The Survival debuted at Lincoln Center with the National Queer Theatre in June

2022 and had a subsequent full performance in June 2024 at the Perelman Performing Arts Center

at the World Trade Center.

Beyond her creative work, Achiro is a dedicated advocate, serving as the African Representative

on the Women Playwrights International Management Committee, a member of the Artistic

Collective of the National Queer Theatre, and a mentor with Girls Write Now in New York.

Twitter: @achirop

Instagram: @achirop

Website: www.achiropolwoch.com