Kwani? Short Story Competition-New Dates
Written by Kwani · September 8, 2009
Kwani Trust is pleased to announce a deadline extension for its national short story competition titled, ‘The Kenya I Live In’. Though we have received in excess of 400 entries, we feel that we have not done justice to what our original ends were for the competition. This includes reaching certain demographics and geographic locations. We have undertaken a huge outreach initiative to address this. The new competition deadline is now October 26, 2009. Kwani Trust would like to thank all the writers who have, so far ,submitted entries into the competition. We look forward to a successful completion of the process when we announce the winners in December, 2009.
Please note only the dates have changed, the rules and guidelines remain the same.However those who had sent their stories earlier and wish to re-submit are allowed to do so.
• Winner: Ksh. 100,000
• 1st runner up: Ksh. 75,000
• 2nd runner up: Ksh. 50,000
Submission Guidelines for Short Stories on ‘The Kenya I Live In’.
• Word count: 3000 – 8000 words. Theme: ‘The Kenya I Live In’.
• This is adult fiction (in the sense that it is not ‘children’s fiction’). Since we are targeting a certain generation, we will only accept entries from writers born after 1978.
• The work can be in English, Kiswahili or Sheng’. The story must be ‘new’ in the sense that it is ‘unpublished in book form’ (we will accept submissions which have been previously published in magazines.)
• Please send submissions by email , attached as a WORD doc to mykenyakwani@gmail.com or by post as a typescript ( no handwritten scripts please)to P o Box 2895-00100 Nairobi.
• A maximum of three entries per person is allowed.
Formatting Guidelines
• Name of author (Times New Roman 12 Bold left justified)
• Contact address, telephone number , date of birth and email (Times New Roman 12 Bold left justified)
• Title of short story (Times New Roman 14, bold, centered). The story should be in Times New Roman, black, size 12, justified, 1.5 line spacing.
• Page numbers and name of author on every page please.
• Word count at the end of the story, bold and left justified
• Submission Deadline : October 26, 2009
Am I therefore allowed to resend my story, using the extra time to hone and craft it better? Otherwise it is unfair on those who had to sacrifice some quality in their work in order to beat the original deadline. Please provide feedback on this.
this is great news;
I sent mine on 7th so are we allowed to resend our stories.
Perfect!
C’mon Kwani? better planning next time?
Can we send in more than one entry for this competition?
Great thought kwani? I would suggest more publicity of the competition. The call out has only got to those who can access the internet and specifically kwani? site. In the rural areas, its practically absent. I personally came to know of this call out this week when I left the rural. Otherwise, consider redistributing more posters. There are still great writers outside there who haven’t heard the call-out.
You know i worked hard in order to beat the original Deadline and now i wanna know if i can enter another story of mine.is it possible?because in the Kenya i want,it is possible!
I want to think that the move is so considerate.But it is not for us who honour deadlines.Good work though
Please tell us if we are allowed to resend our stories.We were in a hurry to beat the deadline
Thank God the deadline was pushed!
ala kwani? cheki tell us if its aiit to resend our edited articles.u knw…us peeps are really excited.
please let us know if we can re-submit.
Mr. Kwani? Simply provide feedback on the following two issues for those who obeyed original deadline:
1. Can we re-edit our already submitted stories and resend?
2. Are we allowed to send in more than one entry?
If simply the above two can be cleared up.
“we feel that we have not done justice to what our original ends were for the competition. This includes reaching certain demographics and geographic locations.”
Which are the “original ends” which were not disclosed to the entrants? Are you looking for anything beyond what you have publicly advertised? Kwani? is starting to get as fishy as the rest of them. If you need transparency in Kenya, the only place left to look is what they’re wearing on Koinange Street.
I do not know what demographics, other than the age specifications you gave, have anything to do with the competition. so does “geographic locations” unless the story doesn’t fit the theme “The Kenya I live In.”
I am perplexed that in a country as tribalized as ours, Kwani? could use such loaded terms without explaining and specifying their intentions.
So :
which demographic location is being targeted? other than those under 31?
Which geographic location is being targeted? Which jimbo?
Could you revise your publicized “rules” so as to reflect those “original ends?”
Lol! I missed the first call. I am here and I must try my luck.Cheers.
Hallo everyone,
We have noted all your concerns and we will be responding to them shortly. Thanks for keeping it Kwani?
Thank you Kwani?
Does your loaded terms simply mean that so far you hav e gone throgh our entries and decided that there is no real story?
monique,
that appears to be the implication. I would however feel better if I knew that they actually read the entries but since the extension notice was posted only a day after the deadline, I do not see possibility of them going over 400 stories and deciding that they were all sub-par.
What happened was that they schemed the names and locations of the entrants and, as they themselves have stated, decided that they did not represent what they were looking for.
i’m new at this, i even missed the first deadline so this extension is a god-send. i know its a lot to ask but i’d feel better if i could read (and not plagiarise) anybody’s work. i’m 19 years old, my writing is amateurish as well and i’d like to get to interact with other aspirin writers such as yourselves.
i know that this is a bit of an infringement on ones creativity but would anyone want to swap (it’s too light a word i know!) stories – read what the competition is writing. its of course a lot to ask but i’m very interested to see raw unpublished Kenyan literature. i myself have a long rumbling (seemly) experimental prose.
since we seem to be the few that actually adhered to the original rules, i feel its fair if we could be allowed resubmit our (heavily edited) work.
thank you.
Now this gotta be one neat competition…extended deadlines and all.sure sounds fishy.no no no no no,not fishy…tha whole competition’s been RIGGED!!!
The longer Kwani? takes to respond on the issue of rediting or being allowed to submit a second the more consiracy theories there will crop up regarding the deadline extension.
Psssst,Mehul…its simple really.if u wanna send another article,just create another email account wth a fake name&send your stuff.if its tha winner,you gonna get tha notification,hah hah
Touche.
Guess this aint a secret anymore.
Ahahaha!
Hey guys, as a young aspiring writer I was interested with the possibility of swapping/exchanging our work with fellow aspirants(?) it is difficult to find good unpublished (armature?) kenyan literature a forum such as this would be a wonderful start. i know its a lot to ask and judging from our flimsy intellectual property legislation its down right stupid but its worth the risk.
I also think that we should be allowed to resubmit our work later in the year.
Thank You.
Awww,now this is just great!!!somebody told lil Jon we are in a hurry to swap pieces BEFORE tha competition comes to an end!!!
Shut up,Jon.
Hallo everyone,
Our regrets for the delayed response. Here are some clarifications regarding the deadline extension.
When we started this competition we wanted to reach as many people as possible who fall within the specified age groups. From the entries we received we didn’t fully achieve this. Many of the submissions were from the urban areas and we believe to get a true reflection of ‘ The Kenya I Live In’ we need to reach even those in the rural areas. We have revised our communication and hope to receive submissions from all over the country with this new deadline.
Now answers to questions regarding the technicalities of the competition.
a) Can those who had beat the first deadline and feel they are not comfortable with their stories re-submit them?
Yes, you can re-submit your stories. But since there won’t be another extension, please take your time and ensure the stories you send are your best.
b) Can one submit more than one story?
You can submit up to a maximum of three stories.
You can send specific questions to mykenyakwani@gmail.com and we will answer them promptly. Kwani? has always been committed to fresh and quality writing. All the best.
WOW!! The Kwani? response to our queries has been brilliant!!! I just love these guys!! 3 stories and also a chance to re-edit othe one we have submitted!! THANKS GUYS!!!
Can somebody elaborate something about writers born after 1978! real adults are they 1978 bornes and below or above?
I am already down with my pen and paper,writing my second story.Thank you kwani?
Thank you for extending the deadline. I had initially given up after I was unable to edit my work before the the date. For fellow writers who had met the deadline, relax. Write something else, Kenya is very reach in literature.
I am proud of kwani.
This is Impunity.
Kwani says that they did not reach as many people as possible who fall within the specified age groups (demographics and geographic locations.) they had targeted.
I would like to advice them to consult Storymoja Publishers- who at one time called for ‘real life experience’ stories through the media in 2007- which i participated.
When I last spoke to Muthoni Garland few weeks ago (2009), she told me that they did not get enough of the material they were looking for and so shelved the whole project until they will have got enough material to pull it through.
Remember this was very wide subject area. Unlike “Kenya I live in”. But still they failed to get enough material.
Secondly, the call -out for stories was published in the daily nation- still they did not get enough material. So here we go again. Same strategy different entity.
Like Culture sung in his cape coast song . ‘The British call it a cape coast but we call it a dungeon” it is the same stragey they use!!
Anyway, I must say that in Kenya the more things change, the more they remain the same. Kwani gave us a deadline, we worked our ass to beat it and now they are saying that they haven’t made the target groups they were looking for.
Firstly, Kwani should know that it will continue receiving manuscripts from the urban -based writers because very few people form the rural access the internet. (Personally I leant the call -out through Joseph Ngujiri’s review in the Sunday Nation). And later followed it on Kwani site.
Two, it amazes me how Kwani works. They want us to believe they will work both day and night to finish our stories.
Now let me get this straight, when is the deadline? October 26. And when is the ceremony due? December 2009.
If you look correctly, you realize that Kwani will have less than two months to read about approximately over 1200 manuscripts if each writer sent three stories or got more than they asked for.
Can anyone convince me that Kwani will genuinely read all the scripts, make recommendations and judgments and fairly come up with a winner within than short period of time?
Come on KWANI? Let’s be honest here. You will not do justice to our scripts. All you will do is look for three people and then award the prizes.
Lets us not play games. We are scribes and this is how we make our money. Honesty, transparency, objectivity, reality and fairness.
And just so that everyone knows, to recruit a new employee, as human resource manger will tell you, you need at least eight hours to go through applications, read all the resumes, call for interviewees, carry out the interviews and so forth. Remember resumes are only 2 pages with spaces and minimum complexity and so are the cover letters.
How about a reading between 400-1200 stories with each article being as long as 3000-8000 words? It beats logic ladies and gentlemen.
Kwani should stop taking us for a ride and tell us there is more to the deadline than their ‘demographics and age group theory’?
Let them tell us, they already have winners or that they did not have enough money for the prizes and need to do a fundraiser to generate the cash.
Personally, I am not buying any of the deadline extension explanation………..
All said and done, I am re- writing my story and will be re-sending it. But from the look of it all, in Kenya, as things change including Kwani deadline, the more they remain the same.
In any case, what makes us believe they will not extend the ceremony to 2010?
thanks for the deadline extension I sent my initial one in a hurry but can now polish it to make it more captivating
Ohaga what can you do? You just take it as it comes.
Aaaaaaah yaah.Ohanga was spot on.Kwani? should realize that we are not writers only after tha money.we wanna know how we perfomed,we wanna know how we can improve on our writing,we wanna know what distinguishes great writers from poor ones,because all of us are aiming at becoming literary giants, because all of us are aiming at becoming literay greats.
Nw,tha Kwani? staff are gonna pick three winners,publish their stories and try to forget about tha other otherwise greatly talented contestants.surely,if say, they get 500 manuscripts,20 or more would have been written by immensely talented individuals…
…and that is where Kwani? FAILS!!!
Every contestant must be notified about his/her perfomance in the competition;where he/she went wrong,how he/she can improve,his/her weaknesses,etc etc etc…blah blah blah blah.
And with the time allocated,Kwani?sounds like it’s some joking organization.
wakenya wacheni siasa.
I have faith in the Kwani? guys. I highly doubt this contest is ‘fixed’. It is pretty normal for us kenyans to jump to that conclusion. Kwani would make more ‘profits’ unearthing new talent and ‘fixing’ doesn’t achieve this.
would it be aiit 2 changanyisha some sheng terms in my Engo essay? halafu, izo story zote in diff’nt lughaz, iz it fair 2 judge all of them in one category? iko swida…
Mehul upstairs was all fired up and ready to take kwani head on but he(she) is now lovey dovey with them but it aint gonna add value to your story. Kwani ina wenyewe and you had better realise that early enough. Ohaga is spot on. This whole thing does not add up, ama?
Kwani had a reading of some stories at the International Book Fair. Since I work in the building I caught up with this event. Except for the story in swahili (which I thought had some class to it), I must say the english ones were trash. I wondered whether the ones they read are the frontrunners in the competition so far. It was boring rubbish. The Kenya I live in is not boring! It was just cliche trash.
If these are the current candidates to take the top prizes I wonder what the judges are doing?
The story I submitted was a 2 hour crash course with typos and formatting errors to beat the deadline but it sure was better and more exciting then what I heard.
But I am still giving Kwani the benefit of the doubt…I still have to send in my re-edited version where I clean up on my mistakes and throw in 2 more stories. Maybe what they read was not represantative of the best they have recieved so far.
Only one way to know what’s up. We just wait and see.
I was born in kenya but i moved to uganda in 92.Could i possibly join the competition but write about “THE KENYA I LIVED IN”?I dont really mind if i dont win but i want my story to be told.Possibly next time choose a topic that is more inclusive.Kwani is big in uganda now and so its only fair that you treat us as one of your own.
send your story to plagiarized@yahoo.com or intellectualtheft@gmail.com for a free editing and commentary on your story
so sorry got it late on our noticeboard .just found it on 24th.wish 2do it but……………
I’m I allowed to use a pseudonym?
Ohh ohhh! my! this is true reflection of the kenya i live in. i have just arrived from ocha after a month stay. I have read what i usually see around. Complaining,skeptical kenyans. I am not surprised.
Kwani thank you.
o my name it is nothing
my age it means less
top marks for whoever figures out who wrote this. chances are none of us are going to win this competition therefore why do we bother? how many people are going to judge our stories what criteria is being used (and since i’m still in high school) is it moderated by another round of judges (examiners)?
the story they pick will be OK, of a decent quality but i know for sure it will definitely not be The Great Kenyan Novel(la) because it i’m currently writing it.
good luck to all of you a big eff you to the idiot who asked the question about writing under a pseudonym you are a colossal ass and the rest goes for most of the people!
but i’m being silly. we live in one monumentally flawed state but its ours, i feel in a competition like this it should be competently represented.
and the land that i live in
has god on it’s side
What are your standpints on the intellectual property rights of the writers submitting the short-stories? I have a short-story i intend to send but wish to have clarification on this issue before i do send it.
Thanks.
I am really greatful for this site. It at least gives Kenyans a chance, the ones whose voices cannot get to be listened to by the few ‘elites’ who seem not to care about anyone. Hope these voices will get to be heard one day. Thank you Kwani.
Credit must be given whereever it is due – and that goes to Kwani? I saw an advertisement in Nairobi Star newspaper posted by them seeking short stories. It seems the management has heeded to some pieces of advises we leave here.
Nonetheless, i still have my doubts over who are going to judge and offer suggestions and criticisms on our manuscripts.
I am not so sure what team Kwani? has in place that are/ will be working on our stories.
I would want to believe that those judges are qualified enough to pass judgements our our manuscripts and beyond that, have written a story(ies) or a book that we can equate to their judgements. If not then everyone is a winner.
That apart, i have a bone to pick with one John Wesley Harding
(upsatairs) who left his opinion including an insult.
As much as i/we appreiacte the fact that everyone is entitled to right of expresion, i think It becomes an offence when you ( in this case John) uses that right to violate others.
John used a strong word in describing somoene who seeked an answer on whether he/she could use a pseudonym. Calling someone an idiot or worse still a collosal ass is such a strong word that should be left to politicians. He went further and applied the same insult to to everyone else.
Individually i take offence. John or whatever his name could be, should know that “INSULTS ARE TO THOSE WHO CAN’T EXPRESS THEMSELVES.”
As a writer i would want to believe you have so many avenues of expressing yourself rather than insulting someone. Allow me therefore to offer you free lessons.
You can express yourself through poetry, prose, playwrights, songs, scripts among many others.
If i were to call you magnificently useless piece of work and dependent high schooler then i would be joining you in your league of those who cannot express themselves. Which i am not and therefore will not call you that.
Besides English has Million of words that you can substitute to insults. How about exploiting that before sitting for your K.C.S.E?
Mr. Ohaga if I didn’t know better I would accuse you of being a journalist for The Standard (gasp!) or any other unsavoury yellow coloured rag. You are a man conceited beyond the vocabulary of the English language. Your blog is a farce – a half assed attempted at self-justification; your writings are no more profound than the rumblings of a man turned laughing-stock.
I hope for your sake your works are of far greater competence than your grammar, and more stimulating than your unremarkable white-collar job.
Now the reason I decided to reprimand Miss. Jackie is because the question she asked was silly to the point of asininity. It lacked proper thought and was half-witted in its execution. I apologies to the1 young miss but the point is that this is a serious competition. The young Miss Jackie is, I presume an aspiring writer it is naive of her to think that her work can be published under a nom de plume – she is not a modern day Sylvia Plath or Ernest Hemingway, established writers and poets who could afford themselves such eccentricities. You yourself should have realised this as accomplished, as you are Mr. Ohaga.
I will not continue to exacerbate the situation any more. I am a boy of competent ability and it is unbecoming for me to wrangle with a man twice my age over a petty matter such as this. In any case this is not a forum for debate nor cheap theatrics.
I suggest Mr. Ohaga that you keep your contrived supercilious attempt at diplomacy to yourself. You are a man of little significance to this competition or to the Kenyan literary sphere.
Good day to you sir.
My apologies to Miss Jackie and all the other members of this forum (with the exceptions of Mesers Ohaga and Bad Boy.)
aha guys betta watch out because am submitting a ‘tormenta en el paraiso!!’
John Wesley Harding said:
“I suggest Mr. Ohaga that you keep your contrived supercilious attempt at diplomacy to yourself. You are a man of little significance to this competition or to the Kenyan literary sphere.”
Prometheus says:
OUCH!!!!
John Wesley Haring, there is now way you are in high school. I don’t know of a lot of high school kids who can write the way you write, or who listen to Bob Dylan. I mean Ohanga writes for ‘The Standard’ and look how much garbage litters his writing.
one thing i can tell you about the kenya I live in is that we could win an award for procrastination. first time i heard of the competition was when Kwani? announced the extension. That was about a month ago. i had all the intention to write, i purposed to write, honestly i did. But somehow the days just flew by and vaguely, at the back of my mind i kept bumping into the reminder that i was meant to submit a story somewhere… where was that again?… i would get round to it, yes i would….with under ten days left to the new deadline, what am i to do?
maybe i should pull an amazing theatrical stunt like our ‘beloved’ politicians and convince Kwani? that the new deadline was never appropriate.
Hey Kwani?! If you do not extend the deadline to when am good and ready… I will call in the International Criminal Court, and the FBI, CIA, Moussad. That would be discrimination of the highest order. I need to form a tribunal to look into this. Unyanyasaji!
Fuck! Am doomed.
there’s talent, and then there’s talent (in italics, note).
one thing i can tell you about the kenya I live in is that we could win an award for procrastination. first time i heard of the competition was when Kwani? announced the extension. That was about a month ago. i had all the intention to write, i purposed to write, honestly i did. But somehow the days just flew by and vaguely, at the back of my mind i kept bumping into the reminder that i was meant to submit a story somewhere… where was that again?… i would get round to it, yes i would….
with under ten days left to the new deadline, what am i to do?
maybe i should pull an amazing theatrical stunt like our ‘beloved’ politicians and convince Kwani? that the new deadline was never appropriate.
Hey Kwani?! If you do not extend the deadline to when am good and ready… I will call in the International Criminal Court, and the FBI, CIA, Moussad. That would be discrimination of the highest order. I need to form a tribunal to look into this. Unyanyasaji!
Fuck! Am doomed.
Mr. Prometheus,
I hope that you meet a fate much more pleasant than the wrath of Zeus (or any present-day Olympian).
The present state of Kenyan journalism is incompetent and amateurish to a fault. The Standard is little more than tabloid (nuff said), the Nation though somewhat conservative and centrist is still written by the same half-wit journalists and crack-pot editors. Mr. Ohaga is simply a propagation of this bastardization of Kenyan Writing. This is unfortunate and cannot be allowed to go on. It is thus my personal mission to root out all of this inadequacy, this ineptitude that is so inherently Kenyan.
You may think that I am petty and arrogant but a lot must be done before we can get to where we should be as a country.
So here I stand upon proverbial soap box!
I assure you I’m in high-school, as my facebook account clearly proves. If people weren’t so cut-throat (and out for my blood and pounds of flesh) I would have given you my name.
Good luck with your submission, I’m yet to submit mine and at this rate it seems unlikely that I ever will for as long as people like Mr. Ohaga are what qualify as Kenyan Writing.
Take care.
May your kidney regenerate eternally, may your fire burn continually.
May Kwani grow a pair and end this god-damned illusion.
P.s. You’d be surprised at what one can achieve with an overseas high school experience. Dylan was (is) a molder of words so profound they are the essence of all that we are.
My story is somewhere hidden in my brain…little bits of it have shown themselves but not anywhere near 3.000 words. I heard of this way before the first deadline and hurriedly put together a few words on the last weekend before the close. Then hallelujah! I found out it had been extended two weeks ago and added another 200 words to my starving manuscript. Seven days to d-day and I am still not writing. Procrastination is not a good hobby.
John Wesley Harding,
I know you meant “may my liver regenerate eternally” and to that I say, Amen…especially given that certain drinks I partake of are likely to cause it more harm than any of Zeus’ eagles could.
Still, I insist, you are not a high school student.
You could be in high school in a different capacity such as a teacher (still unlikely), but not as a student. I just don’t see a high schooler being steeped in Greek mythology and generally being as keenly perceptive (for aptly diagnosing the malaise we call Kenyan journalism) as you are. If I were to guess your name I would probably say Philip Ochieng.
Prometheus,
I am not Philip Ochieng, far from it (as far as ethnicity is concerned). Prometheus no writer worth his salt can boast of a functioning liver (or kidney or lung)! This may have much to say about your character and (perhaps) your talent.
I cannot reiterate strongly enough that I am a high school aged; sour-faced youth, proof of age notwithstanding. If you think I sound (somewhat) intelligent you should meet the rest of my over-achieving, over-worked, over-sexed, under-nourished, over-intoxicated peers here in posh-high-school-topia. They’re more frightening than Banquo’s ghost; damned children of the corn!
We seem to share common interest so I shall ask what is it that you do, in a professional capacity or otherwise? And the million-dollar question, are you going to subject yourself (and perhaps your work) to the uber-critical eye of the omniscient Kwani editors or are you like me, an anti anti-establishment fiend bent on reeking havoc in cyber-space and crushing the hopes of countless tactless, talentless Kenyans with one swoop of the mouse click?
Perhaps my feigned tone of voice and diction lead to the ambiguity of my age but I am once again (and as always) a high-schooler when all pretentions are stripped away.
P.s. I happen to own the world’s finest thesaurus, it even doubles up as an encyclopedia!
JWH said:
” no writer worth his salt can boast of a functioning liver (or kidney or lung)! This may have much to say about your character and (perhaps) your talent.”
I am falling in love with this guy!
As far as owning the world’s finest thesaurus, the same book has been used by some with tragic results. Are you familiar with a guy called Lumumba? He’s a Kenyan politician known to string words together whether they make sense or not just as long as they sound Greek.
Yes, I did submit a short story to Kwani? I will reserve my faith in them until they give me a reason not to.
So you are indeed a high school kid? Very impressive. Even when you say “reeking havoc” it does at least tell me that you can pronounce “wreaking havoc” without “wrecking” the language.
I am a writer, a student of literature, among other things. A struggling writer. Struggling against a literary world littered with mediocrity and struggling to figure out the relevance of a writer in the world we live in. It might be an intellectually fulfilling exercise to write a Spenserian Sonnet but I am not sure the last time that fed a starving kid or built a bridge. A character called Bazarov in Ivan Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons” blurts outs in a fit of frustration against romanticism and sentimental idealism, “a good Chemist is twenty times more useful than the best poet.”
To me, there therefore exists that struggle, to a point of leading me to take on maths years after I thought we had parted ways for life. The key word in what Bazarov says is “USEFUL.” What if Sir Isaac Newton, like Wordsworth would have, decided to to pen an ode to an apple tree instead of questioning why the apple had fallen downwards and not upwards? We would be doing bungee jumps without chords because the concept of gravity would be alien to us…ok may be not!
What I am saying is not that writers are useless, I am just questioning their usefulness in a continent whose priorities are dealing with the most elementary of human needs. Like food, water, malaria etc.
I hate whining (don’t let my deteriorating liver fool you) but I entertain “obstinate questionings” (tell me whose quote that is…you owe me one from Dylan).
Don’t even get me started on Shakespeare and my lost childhood at the expense of a politically correct curriculum that purposely seeks to keep kids away from the best words ever imagined by man. I am actually reading a book by Harold Bloom of Yale about the dangers of letting ideology and not aesthetics determine what is and what is not good literature. Are we supposed to hate Shakespeare because he created a character called Prospero? That is what the older Marxist generation tells us…mind you, all after having imbibed and mastered Shakespeare and thereby improved their thoughts and writings in the process since reading the best invariably makes you better. But they want to limit the literary resources of the young generation to just “provincial” products so as to shield them from “mental colonization.” Is there any wonder then that in 40+ years we have only had one Ngugi?
I can go on and on…email me at this address I just made up (I respect the tenacity of internet weirdos) kwanisprometheus@gmail.com.
Having speculated on a possible correlation between liver damage and writing talent, I would be happy to let you judge whether my withering liver is as a result of what statisticians call “lurking variables,” or if there’s a positive association with my ability to create.
Cheers!
Oh dear, you just wish we could transfer the passion with which we are tearing into each other into writing constructive stories!
Fellow writers, it really doesnt help anything, or anyone when we shadow box at each other like this. Abe Lincoln said it best: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.”
Prometheus,
Seems my previous post got filtered by the Philistines that run this site. Anyway you should check your email. I think the mortals are getting tired of our literary shenanigans perhaps we should stop antagonising them.
Sorry folks!!
so now that the deadline is here, i would wish to comment about the ” shenanigans” why not direct all that energy and idleness into filling the literary desert guys? i have seen other writer’s forums where the debates really assist the contributor’s ,not calling them asinine or anything, i wish anyone had advised those upcoming writes on their specific queries intead of sending barbs at each other, surely….the whole criticsm of kwani and the harsh words just paint the kenya am living in!!!!!
I was at school and the deadline actually passed me.This is 20/11/2009.Could you please allow me to submit an essay?I beg.
George.