KWANI TRUST AND 2010 CDC CAINE PRIZE WORKSHOP READING

Kwani Trust is pleased to announce a reading in collaboration with The CDC Caine Prize workshop. The event will include an award ceremony for the winner of the recent Kwani? Short Story Competition. The Caine Prize readings will feature Mamle Kabu and Stanley Kenani, both shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2009 and 2008 respectively. Kwani? readings will feature 4 upcoming new titles to be released into bookshops on April 1 2010

The Cock Thief

Twice Caine Prize short-listed Parseleleo Kantai explores the not so subtle interface between reality, myth, desperation and futility that can come with the death of belief in a collective future, and ultimately in the self – and the always unachievable hope of escaping poverty in a harsh urban landscape when one is without the usual advantages. The backdrop is Kenya’s Moi era; the main character is the President’s driver and confidante, turned thief of one of the Leader’s significant emblems – a golden cock. This is the ultimate Kenyan heist story

Tale of Kasaya: Let us now Praise a Famous Woman Eva Kasaya with Jackie Lebo

In 1991 a girl of 13 years by the name of Eva Kasaya dropped out of school in rural Western Kenya and came to Nairobi to work as a domestic servant. For several years she was consistently harassed by subsequent employers. When she turned 19 she managed to go back to school and thereafter train as a dressmaker. She also started writing about her life during this period, having never given up on becoming a published writer. ‘Tale Of Kasaya: Let Us Now Praise A Famous Woman’ traces Eva’s journey from girlhood to the present, her memoirs reflect her ambitions, dreams and struggles.

To Be A Man

Ndanu Mungala in her winning poem, ‘Breaking Through’, and the other poets raise the issue of man not being allowed to express tender feelings or cry. Mboga Patroba rejects violence as a definition of manhood, and instead advocates for self-sacrifice, service and respect. Poesiopoa Njeri dissects the disease that allows us to laugh at defilement, rape and abuse in her haunting piece ‘Facing Jeevanjee Gardens’. Samuel Munene and Nga’ng’a Mbugua have penned excellent parodies of some of today’s notions of manhood and relationships. Well known Kenyan poets, Ngwatilo and Sitalia Namwalie further deconstruct “manhood”.

The Stone Hills Of Maragoli

Of Maragoli’ was published several years to great acclaim in Kenya. The pastoral novel was a remarkable work that combined fluent descriptions of Kenyan landscape, close observations of post-independence rural life in Kenya with great rendering of character. It was refreshingly modern when a lot of contemporary literature tries to be clever and post-modern than true to our realities. Stone Hills of Maragoli retains what is best about immediate post-independence literature; its does not shy away from thematic concerns and is solely grounded in the Kenyan present.

EVENT DETAILS

Date : Wednesday 24th March 2010
Time : 7pm
Location: Kifaru Gardens, # 3 Kanjata Road (Off James Gichuru Road)

Directions :
From Waiyaki Way, take a left turn on to James Gichuru Road, and then the first left at the bottom of the hill onto Kanjata Road (follow signage for Loreto Convent Msongari school).

Kifaru gardens is the 3rd gate on the right. It is a white gate with a rhino painted on it in black. For public transport take a matatu No.48 from the city center and alight at Loreto Msongari. See map here .

About Caine Prize

The Caine Prize For African Writing is named in celebration of the late Sir Michael Caine who up until his death worked on the idea of establishing a prize to encourage the growing recognition of the worth of African writing in English, its richness and diversity, by bringing it to a wider audience. The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature – Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer and J M Coetzee – are Patrons of the Caine Prize, as is Chinua Achebe, winner of the Man Booker International Prize.

The Caine Prize is open to writers from anywhere in Africa for work published in English. Its focus is on the short story, as reflecting the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition.

About Kwani Trust

Kwani Trust is a Kenyan based literary network dedicated to developing quality creative writing and committed to the growth of the creative industry through the publishing and distribution of contemporary African writing, offering training opportunities, producing literary events and establishing and maintaining global literary networks.

Our vision is to create a society that uses its stories to see itself more coherently.

Our flagship publication, Kwani?, is a journal founded by some of Kenya’s most exciting new writers and has 5 print editions to date, each containing more than 300 pages of new journalism, fiction, experimental writing, poetry, cartoons, photographs, cutting edge academic papers, ideas, literary travel writing & creative non-fiction.

For Press Enquiries, please contact:

info@kwani.org