Ocwinyo Julius

Birthdate: March 3, 1961

Place of birth: Apac, northern Uganda

Languages spoken: Lwo (Langi), English and French

Writing language: English

Education: Several primary schools, Aboke Junior School, Lango College for both '0' and 'A' levels, Institute of Teacher Education, Kyambogo (ITEK) to train as a teacher of English and French, and the University of Burundi at CELAB (Centre pour I'Enseignement tie Langue au Burundi) to "perfect" his French. Ocwinyo is currently reading for a B.EC1 degree (English Language Teaching! Evaluation) at MaKerere University.
Employment: Ocwinyo taught French and drama in various schools and institutions in Uganda from 1986-96. He has been an editor at Fountain Publishers, Kampala, since 1997
Bibliography: Fate of the Banished (novel), Kampala: Fountain, 1997.
Presently working on his second and third novels, Ocwinyo has three poems in the anthology;
Uganda Poetry Anthology 2000. Kampala: Fountain, 2000
 
Comment: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, William Faulkner and George Lamming are some of the writers who have influenced Ocwinyo's style. The mood of his writings is "informed principally by existentialism, especially as found in the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Ocwinyo says he is concerned mainly with hypocrisy, the futility of our efforts to attain ideal existence and the fundamental sordidness of human nature.