Book: Bom Boy Writer: Yewande Omotoso Publisher: Modjadji Books Year of publication: 2011 Number of pages: 255 Bom Boy by Yewande Omotoso published by Modjadji Books recently found itself (magically?) on the shortlist for the Etisalat Prize for African literature 2014. With this happening I went back and reread the book I first enjoyed […]
Banker and novelist Kinyanjui Kombani‘s became very famous locally because of his book The Last Villains of Molo. In the book he tells a fictional tale of the clashes that wracked Kenya in the 1990s before our famous post election crisis in 07/08. The writer’s latest book Den of Inquities is published by Longhorn Publishers […]
I just recently saw this lovely post from the people from the Caine Prize where they were hosting some of their 2012 and 2013 shortlisted writers to a workshop in Uganda not too long ago. 2012’s gang included Rotimi Babatunde (winner), Billy Kahora, Stanley Kenani and Melissa Myambo. From the class of 2013 there was […]
Billy Kahora is a well known name in the writing circles in Kenya and around the continent. He is known for his many exploits as; a) Writer – non-fiction novella The True Story Of David Munyakei, short story ‘Urban Zoning’ (shortlisted for the Caine prize in 2012). b Editor – of Kwani? b) Movie scriptwriter […]
South African writer Zukiswa Wanner is no stranger to controversy. The Nairobi based writer who is currently working on her latest novel (always working on a novel that one) has been known to give very strong opinions especially on her WordPress blog. The most viral of these was posted last year when she railed against […]
The judges for the Caine Prize 2014 have been announced. The judging panel will be chaired by award-winning author Jackie Kay. She will be joined by the distinguished novelist and playwright Gillian Slovo, Zimbabwean journalist Percy Zvomuya, assistant professor of English at the University of Georgetown Dr Nicole Rizzuto and the winner of the Caine […]
Its good to be an aspiring writer on the continent right now what with opportunities to learn the craft available to allow you to possibly become the next big thing in writing. For those in Nairobi you want to head over to Daystar University where they are currently running their weekly Daystar Creatives program for […]
Canadian MG Vassanji is an author with some serious cred going for him having won awards like the world was about to end in his long career. The include the Commonwealth Writers Prize, Giller Prize, Bressani Literary Prize and the Harbourfront Festival Prize. With those prizes you would imagine that we wouldn’t have too much […]
Not everyone can write fiction. That’s not really a bad thing if you think about it as there are other forms of expressing yourself in the written word like memoir, literary reportage, essays et al. For those who want to get into that part of the writing game then the Commonwealth Short Story Prize cats […]
So Teju Cole came to Nairobi in a blaze of glory last year in the Storymoja Hay Festival. He came to these shores on the back of the Faber & Faber published Open City. The book is about a psychotic rapist Nigerian/German walking around New York and giving his strange view of the world. The […]
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