Sitawa Namwalie
Sitawa Namwalie is a poet and writer interested in exploring how Africans define themselves in today’s world. She worked in the development industry for many years after graduating from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Science in Botany and Zoology, and later obtaining a Master of Arts degree in Environment, Society and Technology from Clark University in Massachusetts, USA. She lives and works as a development consultant in Nairobi. In writing, Sitawa finds her creative expression. But Sitawa has achieved excellence in many areas of life including representing Kenya in tennis and hockey in her youth. A mother of three gorgeous children, Sitawa is married to a man of infectious humour and rare generosity. Her collection of poetry Cut of My Tongue is published by Storymoja.
Al Kags
Al Kags is a poet and writer who has been writing since he was twelve. He spent many years at the feet of old men and women like his grandparents and others and from these associations gained an insight into what the knowledge of history does for one’s present decision-making capacity. By day, Kags (as he is most commonly called) works as a marketer and project manager in Nairobi, and is considered by some as a “weird creative thinker with serial entre-preneurial tendencies”. Al Kags is the founder of the Desturi Trust, which seeks to document Kenyan culture. His collection of historical stories Living Memories is published by Storymoja.
Doreen Baingana
Doreen Baingana is from Uganda and is the author of Tropical Fish: Stories out of Entebbe, which won the Commonwealth Prize for First Book, Africa Region and the Associated Writing Programs Award for Short Fiction. She has also won the Washington Independent Writers Award and been a finalist twice for the Caine Prize for African Writing. She has published stories and essays in American journals such as Glimmer Train and the African American Review, and in The Guardian, UK, Chimurenga, Kwani?, and in major East African newspapers. Ms. Baingana has a law degree from Makerere University, Uganda, and an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland, USA, where she also was a Writer in Residence. She has taught creative writing at the Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the SLS/Kwani? Literary Festival in Kenya, and with FEMRITE in Uganda. After working with Voice of America radio for ten years, she is very happy to be back here to work on African stories.
Sunny Bindra
Sunny is a management consultant, teacher and the author of Storymoja’s first business book Crown Your Customer. He works with Directors and CEOs in leading Kenyan companies, helping them develop creative strategic thinking. He is a weekly columnist on The Sunday Nation, East Africa’s highest- circulation newspaper. His hard-hitting and irreverent column ‘A Sunny Day’ has a wide following. He also writes for Business Daily and a number of other publications on issues relating to the economy, management, governance and society. Visit Sunny Bindra’s Website
Muthoni Garland
Muthoni’s fiction has been published in Kwani? Chimurenga (SA), and in several American and British literary journals and anthologies. Her story, Tracking the Scent of My Mother was nominated for the 2006 ( UK based) Caine Prize, and will be amongst the first books published by Storymoja.
Short stories by Muthoni Garland
- Why Husbands Who Love Their BMWs Should Avoid High Hairstyles By Muthoni Garland
- Wamuyu’s Cross By Muthoni Garland
- The Adoration By Muthoni Garland
- Of Love And Insects By Muthoni Garland
- Odour of Fate By Muthoni Garland
Oluoch Madiang
Oluoch Madiang is the author of the children’s title In the Land of the Kitchen from Storymoja under the Storyhippo Imprint. Oluoch is clearly inspired by his mum and Dad. He remembers his mother bringing a book from Dala called Ahero Dhowa. His dad reads well and has a very good command of English, and he read to the young Oluoch the Rapunzel and Cinderella stories, leaving fond memories in Oluoch’s mind. Oluoch’s dad used to buy him other storybooks, too. Oluoch is currently writing, all at once, an adult short story, a play and two children’s stories. You can look at some of his work at www.madiang.blogspot.com
Martin Njaga
Martin Njaga is the author of Brethren of Ngondu published by Storymoja. Martin believes that Kenyan and East Africans in general are slowly decolonizing themselves; ‘we are decolonizing our minds as Ngugi wa Thiongo would put it. And as such, we are seeing a resurgence of local music, local programing and all that. I think books are next and the herald of a bright future for all of us.’
Boniface Gachugu
Boniface Gachugu, the author of the children’s book titled Peanut and the Burning Tank published by Storymoja, was an avid young writer. His poetry and articles were published both in Kenya and Nigeria . He was among poets featured in an anthology of African poets entitled “Imagination of Poets” published in Nigeria in 2005. Boniface was very passionate about re-introducing the reading culture back to the society. His dream was to see publishers coming up with books that would mirror the current social-economic aspects, governance and education in the country. Boniface Gachugu passed away in November 2009, but he left behind a legacy of fun and mischief in his book, Peanut and the Burning Tank and its sequel to be released very soon.