Dear Friends,
In September, the fourth edition of Macondo Literary Festival will take place from 20th - 22nd September at the Kenya Cultural Centre in Nairobi. The theme for this year’s festival, “The Sea is History,” is inspired by a poem by Caribbean Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. Macondo 2024 will extend the festival’s geography to the spheres of the Swahili Sea.
Macondo will feature workshops and panel sessions, including a book publishing process workshop on Friday 20th September that will demystify the journey to author success. It is a conversation crafted to equip writers to navigate the steps of publishing with practicing professionals in contracting, editing, design, production, and marketing.
Macondo Director Anja Bengelstorff and author and Macondo co-founder Yvonne Awuor have worked to make Macondo a jewel of Africa’s literary calendar, a forum for both local and global writers to share ideas and showcase their works.This year’s "Kenya Writes" panel will feature writers Scholastica Moraa, Scholar Akinyi, Kiprop Kimutai, Buke Abduba, and Alexis Teyie in a discussion celebrating and unpacking Kenya’s vibrant literary landscape. The Kenya Writes session is on Sunday, 22nd September in the main Auditorium of the Kenya Cultural Centre. Mercy Kirui, eKitabu’s Senior Manager, Publishing, will moderate the panel. The full Macondo program is now live at the MLF 24 website.
In related news, also in September, Kenya Publishers Association will celebrate 25 years of excellence and innovation, the silver jubilee of Nairobi International Book Fair (NIBF) from Wednesday 25th September to Sunday 29th at the Sarit Expo Centre. At NIBF, eKitabu will, among other activities, award the 2024 Digital Essay Competition (DEC) young writers and artists for their creativity, ideas and perspectives in essays in Swahili, English, French, German, Arabic, braille, Kenyan Sign Language video, and in artworks.
This year in DEC, we have received over 18,000 essays—our largest number ever—from upper primary and secondary school writers with and without disabilities across all of Kenya’s 47 counties. Pongezi sana Waandishi, Walimu, Wazazi! In the 12 years of DEC, we have gone far together. I look forward to seeing you at the prizegiving in September!
Warmest regards,
Will