Kwani Trust

New Book Releases From Kwani Trust

Kwani Trust is pleased to announce the release of 4 new titles; ‘Cock Thief’ by Parselelo Kantai, ‘Tale of Kasaya: Let Us Now Praise A Famous Woman’ by Eva Kasaya with Jackie Lebo, ‘To Be A Man: Kwani? Poetry Competition Anthology’and the re-issue of ‘The Stone Hills Of Maragoli’ by Stanley Gazemba.

A launch of these titles will be held at The Kenya National Museum on Wednesday 24th March 2010 at 7pm. The launch is part of a double header event between Kwani Trust and the Caine Prize For African Writing Workshop 2010. The evening will also include readings by Kenyan and African writers from the Caine Prize workshop. Read the story »

“The Kenya I Know” Poetry Call-Out

Following multiple conversations on “The Kenya We Want,” and our recent “The Kenya I Live In” short story competition, The Kwani Trust would like to invite writers to submit poems that explore the multiple realities we live in, the moments that define our public and personal lives, be they located in our parents, our childhood; high school and/or college, our adventures accessing and conquering (or not) workplaces, what parenthood begins to look like; the things that change, the things that remain the same.

We’re looking for disarming poems written in song and dance, in colour or in black and white, in noise and silence, innocence or guilt –truths and lies as told by a new generation, spurred by new imaginations, revealed by new narratives and expressions.

Selected poems will appear in the upcoming Kwani? 06. Read the story »

‘The Kenya I Live In’ Short Story Competition Update

Kwani Short Story Competition

In July 2009 Kwani Trust announced the launch of a national short story competition titled, ‘The Kenya I Live In’, inspired by the recent push for ‘The Kenya We Want’.

Kwani Trust has received a record 500 entries for the ‘Kenya I Live In’ short story competition. Winners will now be announced on the 24th of March during the launches of 4 upcoming Kwani? titles. In addition to being published in our upcoming issue, Kwani? 06, the three best stories will bag the following prizes:

• Winner: Ksh. 100,000
• 1st runner up: Ksh. 50,000
• 2nd runner up: Ksh. 25,000

There will also be a 10,000 shilling gratuity for the 3rd and 4th runners up. Read the story »

Kwani? Online - Mis-Appreciation of African Literature’

In ‘Mis-Appreciation of African Literature’ (101), David Kaiza argues that fights over the reading African literature ought to concern us in Africa only as a curiosity; we have, for good and for worse, inherited a body of work already. It is not our place to doubt what is ours. He adds that we who would continue creating art and literature on the continent ought to concern ourselves with technical questions to start the kind of reading which should have been done years ago; to say if a book is written well or badly, to compare what we experience inside the pages and compare them to what we experience outside of them.Read the full article here.

CIRCA 1969: THE DEATH OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

In this second and last part of his letter to Philip Ochieng, Taban lo Liyong decries the poor quality of the African – and particularly East African - creative writing that seemed to emerge after the creation of the Department of African Literature. It is a sombre reflection on what Taban sees as a continuing lack of seriousness on the part of writers on the continent and region whom he says, do not read widely enough, do not strive hard enough to understand the religions, languages and traditions from around the world that would inform deeper literature. Read the full article here.