Baingana won the
Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction in 2003 for her collection
Tropical Fish. It was published by the
University of Massachusetts Press and Broadway Books in the US, Oshun Books in South Africa, and
Cassava Republic Press in Nigeria. It has been translated into Swedish and Spanish. It is forthcoming in French. The linked stories, which explore the lives of three sisters growing up in Entebbe after the fall of
Idi Amin, have been described by
Publishers Weekly as "richly detailed stories" that are "lush with cultural commentary." Baingana has published two children's books as well as short stories, essays, and articles in numerous journals and magazines including; The Georgia Review, The Evergreen Review, The
African American Review,
Chelsea,
Glimmer Train,
Callaloo,
Agni,
The Caravan: A Journal of Politics and Culture,
Transition,
The Guardian,
Chimurenga,
Kwani?, Farafina and Ibua. Her stories have been broadcast on
Voice of America and
BBC and have been included in many anthologies including
Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing;
The Granta Anthology of African Fiction,
Cultural Transformations (OneWorld),
New Daughters of Africa (edited by
Margaret Busby, 2019). and Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices. Baingana was a contractor with
Voice of America for a decade and taught at the Writer's Center, Bethesda, MD before returning to Uganda. She was a managing editor of Storymoja Africa, a Kenyan publisher, and chairperson of
FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers Association. She co-founded and directs the Mawazo Africa Writing Institute and leads creative writing workshops across Africa. The title story of Baingana's award-winning collection
Tropical Fish has been adapted to the stage and performed at the Kampala International Theatre Festival (KITF 2016) and four other venues in Kampala, as well as the AfriCologne Theatre Festival in Cologne, Germany, in 2017. Another of Baingana's short stories, "Hills of Salt and Sugar", was adapted and staged at KITF 2018. Baingana has been a judge for prizes including; The Afritondo Short Story Prize, the
9mobile Prize for Literature, the
Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the
Golden Baobab Prize and the
Hurston/Wright Prize for Debut Fiction. ==Awards==