Ethiopian born writer Dinaw Mengestu is in the running for this years Kirkus Prize as his book All Our Names was among the finalists for its first annual book prizes. The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction […]
A few months ago I mentioned that Sierra Leone writer Aminatta Forna was one of the recipients of this years Windham Campbell Prize. The prize comes with a handy US$150,000 that allows you to do your work without worrying about bills for a little bit. Well our Aminatta officially received her prize at the Yale […]
As mentioned earlier the Open Book Festival happened in mid September. The folks at the festival have been kind enough to send me a few images to show you the colour and basic awesomeness that was the week long event. Enjoy ladies and gents. Ready to voice Writer’s Rage: Mervyn Sloman, @thando_mgqo and Zukiswa Wanner […]
Book: Different Colours Author: Ng’ang’a Mbugua Publisher: Big Books Publication date: 2011 Number of pages: 260 Genre: Fiction With the Nairobi International Book Fair in town then its only fair that I review a book from one of the folks in the running for the Wahome Mutahi Literary Prize. Unfortunately I don’t have access to […]
This year’s library of the year awards popularly known as the Maktaba Awards happened at the Leakey Auditorium, National Museum alongside the Storymoja Festival that was happening at the same venue. The key speaker for the event was Dr Auma Obama who was also the Storymoja festival patron. This year it was the time for […]
The Nairobi International Book Fair which was born in 1996 and is now officially an adult is currently running at the Sarit Centre with the events starting today until the Saturday. The climax (stop sniggering!) will be on Saturday evening with a dinner with well known Kenyan brands in literature like David Maillu, Prof Chris […]
The team at the Storymoja have done an amazing job this year. Without any major disaster (at least at the venue) it went smoothly for the most part for the team with Patron, Dr Auma Obama, founder Muthoni Garland alongside Dawn Makena and their team doing a great job. A few quibbles about the event. […]
You want be having dinners in your honour, mad change being tossed at you as you travel world capitals and all bow in your way? Creative writing might not be the best route for fame and fortune as we all know seeing as writing isn’t the most glamorous of jobs especially in this part of […]
Sunday was the last day of the Storymoja Festival. This day was special as there would be a memorial in the evening to remember Prof Kofi Awoonor who died when bad folks attacked the Westgate Mall last year. It was a whole year already since that horrible day was upon us. Wow. I started the […]
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka never showed up for the gala event on Friday night and I was starting to feel like these guys were avoiding me. The other day I was at the Blankets & Wine and DJ Cleo the headline act allegedly refused to get on the plane to come even though he had […]
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