MAISHA YETU
Fake it till you make it. This is a common refrain in the make believe worldof showbiz and pop culture. Here, outward appearances – manner of dressing, speech and accessories – matter most. Since the late 90s, when the crop of new generation artistes stormed into the music scene a ‘celeb’ and ‘bling’ culture has […]
Maisha Yetu: Describe your best moment as a writer Kinyanjui Kombani: The relaunch of The Last Villains of Molo in September 2012 at Daystar University, Valley Road Campus. The story of ‘Villains’ is another novel altogether. It was written in 2002 and I promptly signed the publishing contract. Sadly, I had to wait six years […]
She introduced herself to Kenya and the world with her evergreen novel The River and the Source, at a time when Kenyans were starting to wonder who would step into Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s gigantic shoes. Readers instantly fell in love with the book. And to prove that it was no fluke, the book won the […]
Nation journalist Ng’ang’a Mbugua, is this year’s Wahome Mutahi’s Literary Prize winner with his book Different Colours. This makes it two times in a row that he has won the prize. In 2010, he won the same prize with his other book Terrorists of the Aberdare. Different Colours is published by Big Books. Ng’ang’a’s book […]
It would appear that matters to do with environmental conservation occupy a special place in Ng’ang’a Mbugua’s world. Yet, it is these conservation matters that fire his creativity. His last two books have all focused on environmental conservation as their central theme. And while these issues might appear boring and the least likely subject of […]
In case you have forgotten Kenya still has a literary prize called the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature. I might also hasten to add that the Prize is administered by the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) every two years. Come October, at the end of the Nairobi International Book Fair a creative Kenyan will go home […]
Author Kinyanjui Kombani has parted ways with his publishers Acacia Stantex in regards to his book The Last Villains of Molo. The move effectively ends a long drawn struggle between author and publisher that has lasted more than five years. The novel has been hailed as a powerful enactment of the 1992 ethnic violence and […]
The National Book Development Council of Kenya (NBDCK) will on Wednesday, January 19, launch the William Burt Prize for African Literature at the Kenya National Library Services headquarters. The award promises to be the most prestigious in the Kenyan literary scene, with the winner taking home Sh1 million (12,000 Canadian Dollars). The Award is being […]
For a long time now there have been concerns that literary prizes in the country do little to encourage writing. This was before the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, the most prestigious literary award in the country, tripled its prize money to Sh150,000. Henry ole Kulet was the first recipient of this vastly improved prize […]
Kenyan publishers: The weak link in Kenyan writing? A Paper presented at an international seminar on Historical Legacy and Contemporary Writing in the Commonwealth, held in New Delhi from 8-10 October. By JOSEPH NGUNJIRI Just like the old woman in the Igbo proverb gets uneasy when dry bones are mentioned so does East Africa and […]