Of Literary Prizes, and Poetry with Stanley Onjezani Kenani at the SHFK
July 24th, 2009 | Published in Features, Storymoja Hay Festival 2009
Write a short story and win 15,000 dollars.
Is that fair? Should one write for money? What about the alleged curse of the Nobel Prize: Winners don’t write better books after that.
And what happens when you don’t win? The “Best” and the “Almost-best” get together to talk about the impact prizes have had on their lives and their writing (or not), and the real value of prizes.
Stanley Kenani, Writer from Malawi
One of them is Stanley Onjezani Kenani, a writer from Malawi. He has had his poetry published in many journals such as Botsotso in South Africa, A Hudson View in the USA and the Sable Literary Magazine in the UK, among others. He has read at poetry festivals in Malawi, South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Macedonia. A prose writer, his short story, For Honour, was short listed for the Caine Prize in 2008. In Malawi, Stanley maintains two columns in leading newspapers. An accountant, he currently lives in Nairobi where he works for an international organization.
Join Stanley and other winners and nominees of the Caine Prize, Wahome Mutahi Prize and Jomo Kenyatta Prize in this discussion on Saturday, August 1st at 2 – 3:30pm at the Storymoja Hay Festival, at Impala Club Grounds.
Also at the Festival:
Does poetry serve a purpose in this hard world of ethnic strife, credit crunches, global warming and swine flu? Can poetry change the world or at least a life? Come listen to eloquent poets tell us what inspires them, what is good and bad poetry, and the role of poets in times of increasing chaos.
Join this Poetry Conversation with Sandra Mushi (TZ) and Stanley Kenani (Malawi) and Kenyan poets Phyllis Muthoni, Stephen Partington Tony Mochama on Sunday, August 2nd at12 – 1:30pm.
