Bonus Material: Hay Festival Teams with Nairobi’s Storymoja

In Discussion by Edward Nawotka

By Edward Nawotka

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NAIROBI: The inaugural Storymoja Hay Festival will take place in Nairobi, Kenya this July 31-August 2. A collaboration between the UK’s Hay Festival and Nairobi’s Storymoja, with 132 events and 50 hours of programming featuring a veritable plethora of writers, artists, musicians and academics from across Africa. The event is the latest project of the Storymoja writing and publishing collective. Founded in 2007, the collective has the stated aim of publishing East African writers “to a world class standard” and “reaching the widest possible audience.”

Among up and coming African writers appearing are Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe), Tony Kan, Tolu Ogunlesi, Chika Unigwe (Nigeria), Monica Arac de Nyeko and Doreen Baingana (Uganda), Dr. Chris Hart, Billy Kahora, Yvonne Awuor, Judy Kibinge and Parselelo Kantai (Kenya), Sandra Mushi (Tanzania). Hanif Kureshi, Vikram Seth, Kate Adie and others will be coming from the UK. The opening session features a Q&A with Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka.

STORYMOJA’s: Web site.

READ: More about the festival

SEE: The schedule of Events.

About the Author

Edward Nawotka

A widely published critic and essayist, Edward Nawotka serves as a speaker, educator and consultant for institutions and businesses involved in the global publishing and content industries. He was also editor-in-chief of Publishing Perspectives since the launch of the publication in 2009 until January 2016.