In partnership with the British Council and Granta, Kwani? presents GRANTA’S Best of Young British Novelists 4 at Sunday Salon Nairobi

A Prose & Poetry Series

Featuring: Nadifa Mohamed, Adam Foulds, Thabiso Mohare, Billy Kahora and Abdul Adan

On 15 April 2013, Granta announced its once-in-a-decade selection of the twenty best British novelists aged under forty. Granta’s first generation-defining list of writers was published in 1983 and set the bar for the following decades. Throughout 2013, the British Council and Granta are collaborating on an international showcase of contemporary British novelists.

Six Readings & Performances

Six unique voices

In a tranquil outdoor setting 

3pm-9pm

Sunday 23rd June

The Elephant (formerly Kifaru Gardens)

FREE ENTRY

ABOUT THE WRITERS & POETS

NADIFA MOHAMED
Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa (now Somaliland) in 1981 and moved as a child to England in 1986, staying permanently when war broke out in Somalia. She was educated in London and went to Oxford to study history and politics and she finally returned to Hargeisa in 2008. She lives in London and her first novel, Black Mamba Boy, based on her father's memories of his travels in the 1930s, was published in 2010. It was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the John Llewellyn-Rhys Memorial Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. It won the 2010 Betty Trask Prize. Her second novel will be published 15 August 2013

Watch a short film on Nadifa Mohamed co-commissioned by GRNTA & British Council and directed and produced by The Film Atelier, here

Read 'Filsan', Nadifa's short story from Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists, here
 

ADAM FOULDS
Adam Foulds was born and raised in London. He studied English at St Catharine's College, Oxford, and was awarded an MA from the University of East Anglia, where he studied Creative Writing. He has had poetry published in various magazines, including Quadrant and Stand. He received the Harper-Wood Fellowship from St John's College, Cambridge.His first novel, The Truth About These Strange Times (2007), is about the relationship between Howard, a Scottish loner, and 10-year-old maths prodigy, Saul. It won the 2008 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and a 2007 Betty Trask Award. This was followed by the long narrative poem, The Broken Word (2008), about Kenya's Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s, seen through the eyes of an English schoolboy. It was shortlisted for the 2008 John Llewellyn-Rhys Memorial Prize and the 2009 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and won a Somerset Maugham Award and the 2008 Costa Poetry Award.His second novel is The Quickening Maze (2009), a part-historical part-fictional account of the relationship between John Clare, Matthew Allan - the head of Clare's mental asylum, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. It was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Adam Foulds lives in London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010.

Watch a short film on Adam Foulds co-commissioned by GRANTA & British Council and directed and produced by The Film Atelier, here

Read 'A World Intact', Adam's short story from Granta 123: Best of Young British Novelists, here

THABISO MOHARE
Thabiso Mohare, better known as Afurakan, is the crown prince of Johannesburg’s underground slam poetry. He is best known for his stage improvisations on hip­-hop tunes. His activity within Jozi’s poetry movement can be traced back to the “So where to” poetry events, and his work with the poetry collective Soul 2 Mouth, among others. Afurakan has played a vital role in the growth of the spoken word movement in Johannesburg and indeed South Africa, and he’s a regular at schools and community centres, performing for the purpose of spreading the word. He is the co-founder of Word N Sound Poetry & Live Music Series a ground breaking poetry development project that has been running in Johannesburg since 2010

BILLY KAHORA
Billy Kahora is the Managing Editor of Kwani? He also writes fiction and completed an MS.c in Creative Writing with distinction at the University of Edinburgh as a Chevening Scholar in 2007. Before that Billy studied and worked in South Africa for 8 years and in between worked as an Editorial Assistant for All Africa.com in Washington D.C. He has a Bachelor of Journalism degree and post-graduate diploma in Media Studies from Rhodes University. His short story, 'Urban Zoning' was shortlisted for the 2012 Caine Prize. He edited ‘Kenya Burning’, a visual narrative of the Kenya post-elections crisis published by the GoDown Arts Centre and Kwani Trust in March 2009. His extended feature, ‘The True Story of David Munyakei’ on Kenya’s biggest whistleblower has been developed into a non-fiction novella and released by Kwani Trust in July 2009. Billy was a Regional judge for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and has worked on films including Soul Boy and Nairobi Half Life.

ABDUL ADAN
Abdul Adan was born in Somalia and grew up in Kenya, where he learnt English, Swahili, and Arabic. His work has appeared or is fourthcoming in such journals and anthologies as African-writing, Jungle Jim, Arab World Books, StoryTime, Kwani? 06 and 07, SCARF, African Roar, and Gambit. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is currently working on a collection of stories, and a screenplay for a Somali feature film in collaboration with Hot Sun Films.