By Shingai Kagunda Photos by Prestige Bookshop. On 1 March 2019, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor launched her second novel, The Dragonfly Sea, for the first time. She honoured us by doing so at Prestige Bookshop with an open audience and a mini panel discussion. Nairobi was not prepared for the explosive event that took place inside our […]
Tag Archives: kenyan literature
At 81, Ngugi wa Thiong’o Announces 34th Book, a Gikuyu Philosophical Epic Novel, 13 Years After His Last
Thirteen years after his last novel Wizard of the Crow, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who turned 81 on 5 January, has a new one forthcoming. Kenda Muiyuru: Rugano Rwa Gikuyu na Mumbi, published in Gikuyu by East African Educational Publishers, is, according to Kenya’s The Standard, “a ground-breaking epic that subverts patriarchy and roots for social equity.” The […]
In a Pub in the Hearafter | By P Ochieng Ochieng | An African Story
Except at the end of the cycle, when the AFRO PRESIDENTS pub fills to capacity, Jomo always stops by for a drink. Today he occupies a spot close to the pub’s Eastern portal. His eyes are glued to a book. Reaching out for his beer-mug, he raises it above his grey beard and takes a […]
African Literary News | Binyavanga Wainaina Signs a Two-Book Deal with Publishing Power House
Binyavanga Wainaina is back! Okay, not that he’s been absent. He has made excellent use of social media as a platform for sharing his signature provocations on African literature, culture and politics. But it’s been exactly 3 years since his last book, One Day I Will Write About This Place. And while we love Binyavanga’s Tweets […]
How Africa Went from Rising to Becoming a Virus | Kenyan Novelist, Yvonne Owuor, on Reimagining Africa
The Kenyan novelist, Yvonne Owuor, should be applauded for her rousing TEDxEuston talk about seeking out new ways of imagining and telling Africa’s stories. She makes the point that the world has gotten so used to thinking of Africa through narratives that go from unbridled optimism to sheer contempt. We all saw how the whole […]
Who is Africa’s Most Prolific Novelist?
Cyprian Ekwensi who has published 24 books, Naguib Mafouz 46, and Wilbur Smith 36 are up there on Africa’s most published list. But the person who tops the list is, as far as we know, an eccentric but brilliant writer little known outside his native Kenya. Some say he made his name writing pornographic drivel, but […]
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