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| Storymoja Hay Festival Poster |
The line-up for the fourth Storymoja Hay festival in Nairobi
is out. The Storymoja Hay Festival runs from 13—16 September and features international
and local writers.
Dates: September 13-16, 2012
Venue*: National Museum of Kenya
Tickets: Kshs 1,500/Season and Kshs 1,000/day
*The festival will be based for the first time this year in
the National Museum of Kenya.
About
Hay Festival works across five continents bringing writers
to debate and meet with audiences around the world. Storymoja Hay Festival is the
ONLY HAY festival in Africa.
Scribes
Writers this year include Jung Chang, author
of Wild Swans, Dinaw Mengestu, Ethiopian-born American author
of Children of the Revolution, Giles Foden, Professor of Creative Writing
at UEA, UK and author of The Last King of Scotland, Precious
Williams, author of the memoir Precious and ambassador for the
charity Africans Unite Against Child Abuse, Billy Kahora, author of The
True Story of David Munyakei and Urban Zoning, Muthoni Garland,
author of Tracking the Scent of My Mother, No Violet Bulawayo, winner
of the Caine prize in 2011 for Hitting Budapest, Michael Logan,
author of Apocalypse Cow, which won the Terry Pratchett Prize, Tony
Mochama,Chris Lyimo, Sunny Bindra among others
Festival Programme
Fourth Storymoja Hay
Festival
The fourth Storymoja festival will have the following events:
1.
The
inaugural Wangari Maathai Lecture
 |
| Wangari Maatthai Memorial Lecture Poster |
This will be given in honor of Nobel Peace Laureate and
founder of The Green Belt Movement Prof. Wangari Maathai. It will be given by
the Chinese author and historian Jung Chang.
Hay at 25
The way we live now from
Hay Festival on
Vimeo.
2.
Masterclasses
in art, poetry and creative writing
Master classes are an essential part of this festival.
Lemn Sissay who is artist-in-residence at London's
South Bank Centre and the poet and film-maker Imtiaz Dharker will run
a masterclass on writing and performing poetry.
Lola Shoneyin, Nigerian poet, will run a poetry workshop and
Swedish born Dutch illustrator Marit Tornqvist, best known for her
illustrations for Astrid Lindgren's books, will run an art workshop for
children.
Eurig Salisbury the Children's Laureate in Wales will
run a workshop for children's poetry, Precious Williams, daughter of a
Nigerian Princess, raised by a white family in Sussex will describe the growing
pains of an African foster child in her first
book Precious while Dinaw Mengestu, born in Addis Ababa will delve
in his fiction accounts of displacement and identity experienced by immigrants;
the two will run a workshop together on Creative Writing.
3. Panel Talks/Discussions
Giles Foden, Professor of Creative Writing at UEA in the UK
and author of Zanzibar and The Last King of Scotland will
talk about his fiction and the Oscar-winning film based on his novel.
Ory Okolloh, head of Policy and Government Relations Africa
for Google, will discuss freedom of expression with author John Kampfner.
They will be joined by the High Commissioner to Kenya HE Dr. Turner who served
as the Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office before being appointed ambassador to Kenya.
This year's festival will also see the first Commonwealth
Writers panel debating The Writer and the Reader: Who are Contemporary
African Authors Writing For? Jekwu Anyaegbuna (Commonwealth Writers
Short Story regional winner, Africa 2012), NoViolet Bulawayo (2011
Caine Prize Winner) and Claudette Oduor and Lauri
Kubuitsile (from Botswana, 2011 Caine Prize nominee) will talk
to Billy Kahora (managing editor of Kwani, 2012 Caine Prize
nominee and 2012 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize judge).
4. Music
Music will be from the Kenyan Boys Choir, who sang at
Obama's inauguration, and a Poetry Gala with Lemn Sissay, Susan
Piwang, Paula Biraaro and Beverely Nabozo.
5. Kids events
Children have a designated area called Story Hippo village
where they can play and interact with other children. Writing and Poetry workshops
will also be conducted for children in this tent.
6. Screenings
There will be screening of The Last King of Scotland [Giles
Foden will introduce the screening], A Small Act, Getting Justice,
Tomorrow will come, Internal Flight, Yes Man!
2012 Contributors
Jung Chang, Dinaw Mengestu, Giles Foden, Precious Williams, Billy
Kahora, Muthoni Garland, NoViolet Bulawayo, Michael Logan, Tony Mochama, Chris
Lyimo, Sunny Bindra, Lemn Sissay, Imtiaz Dharker, Lola Shoneyin, Marit
Tornqvist, Eurig Salisbury, Ory Okolloh, John Kampfner, Jekwu Anyaegbuna, Claudette
Oduor, Lauri Kabuitsile, Susan Piwang, Paula Biraaro and Beverely Nabozo
