During a June 2019 Heinrich Böll Stiftung memorial event in Berlin, the novelist Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor delivered a moving tribute to Binyavanga Wainaina, who died in Nairobi on 21 May 2019, aged 48. Owuor, whose Binyavanga-edited and Kwani?-published short story “Weight of Whispers” won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2003—the year after Binyavanga’s […]
Tag Archives: kenyan literature
Kenyan Writers React to 25-Year-Ruling Former President Daniel Arap Moi’s Death
Daniel Arap Moi. Credit: The New York Times. Kenya’s former president Daniel Arap Moi recently died. The ex-teacher and politician had ruled Kenya for 25 years, from his succession to Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta in 1978 to his stepping down in 2002 after the constitution barred him from running again. He is, needless to […]
Nairobi Noir, Edited by Peter Kimani & Featuring Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Stanley Gazemba, Troy Onyango, Makena Onjerika, Forthcoming in February 2020
Each anthology in Akashic Books’ noir series is “set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city” and includes new fiction by writers from the country. In 2018, there was Lagos Noir, edited by Chris Abani and featuring fellow Nigerians Chika Unigwe, Nnedi Okoroafor, E.C. Osondu, Sarah Ladipo Mayinka, and Jude Dibia, among […]
Mukoma wa Ngugi Shares Tizita Playlist in Anticipation of Forthcoming Novel with Cassava Republic Press
Mukoma wa Ngugi will be publishing a new novel with Cassava Republic Press. Titled We Unbury Our Dead with Song, the novel centers on four competing Tizita musicians and is set in Kenya and Ethiopia. In a tweet announcing the news, Mukoma describes the book as his “love letter to African creativity and imaginations,” and […]
Nobel Prize in Literature: Ngugi wa Thiong’o Is Bookies’ 4th Favourite for One of 2019’s Two Awards
It has been a tradition, since the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature went to Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, for literary people to wonder when it should be Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s turn. And this year, the perennial favourite is, once again, a favourite. And the twist of 2019—the Swedish Academy’s announcement that it will be giving […]
Photos & Details: How Prestige Bookshop Hosted the Nairobi Launch of Yvonne Owuor’s The Dragonfly Sea
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 […]
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