Tag Archives: Muthoni Garland

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Storymoja Publishers join social media site Pinterest

Some of the titles pinned on the publisher’s Pinterest.

One of the most innovative publishers in Kenya has to be the Storymoja Publishing left by Muthoni Garland. They have the most output fiction wise where some of the new companies operating in Kenya are concerned. They also have several initiatives to bring reading to the fore like Start A Library.

The biggest event in the firms calendar also happens to be Kenya’s biggest literary festival the Storymoja Hay festival. The festival is a few days of literary awesomeness with writers from around the continent and the planet. Last year’s festival was pretty cool one and I had a pretty cool time as did several of the people who showed up.

This year’s version of the festival is coming soon (September) . With this in mind the company is gearing up for the occasion with several new things. For one they have set up a the storymoja Pinterest page with several boards including Books from Africa, Know your African writers and off course a special board for the 2013 festival.

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Caine Prize 2013 short list named; Nope, no Kenyans

Gaze at the face of Nigeria’s Rotimi Babatunde the 2012 winner and get motivated.

The Caine Prize for African writing was announced yesterday and the list was quite surprising to say the very least; four Nigerians and 1 Sierra Leonian. No other nationality was named in what many consider one of Africa’s leading writing prizes.

Kenyans have a pretty cool relationship with two Binyavanga Wainaina and Yvonne Owuor winning it in 2002 and 2003. Wainaina’s piece was “Discovering Home” and Yvonne’s was “Weight of Whispers.”

Its been dry since. Almost literary desert like with only Parsalelo Kantai in 2004 (“Comrade Lemma and the Black Jerusalem Boys’ Band”) and Muthoni Garland in 2006 (Tracking the Scent of My Mother) being nominated. Last year was much better for us (Kenya) with Billy Kahora’s story on some drunk going to confront his bosses in the office “Urban Zoning” according us the first nomination in a while.

I am not going to lament that the Caine Prize team failed to do regional representation with their nominations. I am going ask Kenyan fiction writers to up their game. The winner of this prize has good things coming their way starting with a £10,000 prize is to be announced at a celebratory dinner at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 8 July. And then there is the profile you raise when you get in those spaces.

So Kenyan, I urge you to read the following shortlisted nominees, get tips and go for the 2014 edition:

All the best Kenya people. Also Ugandan people. And Tanzanian people. Basically all None-Nigerian and Sierra Leone people.