STORYMOJA

For the past 10 years, Beth Lisick and Arline Klatte have been running a story telling gig to get people on stage to tell their stories in San Francisco. They bring this new form of expression into Kenya through the Storymoja Hay Festival

The Creative Writing Workshop under the British Council tent, at 1.30 pm was conducted by renowned author Hari Kunzru. In attendance were budding writers, non-fiction writers, bloggers, intellectuals and journalists…

“I enjoyed the workshop as not only did I meet people interested in writing but I learnt a lot too. In my travelling I will remember to always jot down striking things instead of just relying on memory.” Radha

It was 11.00 am on Thursday 15th September and there was already excitement at the US Embassy Tent. A group of writers and an illustrator were meeting a writer and an illustrator rolled in one.

I threw a side glance to her as she walked. What a figure! Tall, tender and slender.

A full moon lit the first night for the visitors as they took tea on the porch…

It strikes me that I am sweating, so I stop, put down my sack of plastic bottles…

I take the first step. Glance at the clock above me. Two o’clock on the dot. My heart …

Dusk is falling over the city like a blanket. I don’t know what time it is. I don’t have a watch but I can always rely on the city clock, if it is working. But on this particular evening, the city clock’s face is dressed in campaign posters.

The event brought together two generations of litterateurs, with Caine Prize winner Binyavanga Wainaina in conversation with his aunt Rebeka Njau, veteran Kenyan playwright and novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o in conversation with his son Mukoma wa Ngugi, author of the detective novel Nairobi Heat.