Africa’s most prestigious literary prize, the Etisalat Prize for Literature has collaborated with Kwani Trust for a weekend of literary events in Nairobi on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th June 2014 as part of a three city African tour for shortlisted writers of the Etisalat Prize for Literature. The Meet the Writers event includes a panel discussion with the three shortlisted writers of the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature, NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwe), author of We Need New Names and winner of the 2013 edition, Yewande Omotoso (Nigeria/South Africa), author of Bom Boy, and Karen Jennings (South Africa), author of Finding Soutbek. This will be followed a panel of writers in conversation on the role of artists in times of violence and insecurity held in partnership between Kwani Trust and Nairobi Forum featuring writers NoViolet Bulawayo, Parselelo Kantai, Billy Kahora and journalist Rashid Ibrahim.

NoViolet Bulawayo, Yewande Omotoso and Karen Jennings will also feature at the Kwani? Sunday Salon alongside Ugandan writer, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, following the recent launch of her debut novel in Kampala, Kintu, published by Kwani Trust. Other featured writers at this event include Kwani? managing editor Billy Kahora and Okwiri Oduor, both shortlisted for the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing. The Etisalat Prize for Literature tour will run concurrently with the 2014 Kwani? Fiction retreat, being held in Laikipia.

Events
5pm, Saturday 28th June, Louis Leakey Auditorium, National Museums, Nairobi: Meet the Writers event with the three writers shortlisted for the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature – NoViolet Bulawayo, Yewande Omotoso and Karen Jennings. This will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.

3pm, Sunday 29th June, Kwani Trust office gardens, Riverside Drive, Nairobi: The Kwani? Sunday salon features the winner of the Kwani? Manuscript Prize, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi alongise the three writers shortlisted for the 2013 Etisalat prize for Literature- NoViolet Bulawayo, Yewande Omotoso and Karen

Jennings.They will be joined by Kwani? managing editor Billy Kahora and Okwiri Oduor, both shortlisted for the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing.

For further information, images or interviews, please contact: info@kwani.org. For more information on the Etisalat Prize for Literature please email press@etisalatprize.com

Notes for Editors:

Kwani Trust: Established in 2003, Kwani Trust is a Kenyan based literary network dedicated to developing quality creative writing and committed to the growth of the creative industry through the publishing and distribution of contemporary African writing, offering training opportunities, producing literary events and establishing and maintaining global literary networks. Our vision is to create a society that uses its stories to see itself more coherently. www.kwani.org

Etisalat Prize for Literature: The Etisalat Prize for Literature is the first ever pan-African prize to applaud first time writers of published fiction. The Etisalat Prize was founded in June 2013 and has a board of patrons which include some of Africa’s finest intellectuals. Submitted works must be the writer’s first fiction book of over 30,000 words and published within the last twenty-four months. The winner of the prize receives £15,000 and will attend the Etisalat Fellowship at the prestigious University of East Anglia. www.etisalatprize.com

NoViolet Bulawayo: NoViolet Bulawayo is the winner of the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature. Her story “Hitting Budapest,” is the opening chapter of her novel, We Need New Names, and won the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing. NoViolet’s other work has been shortlisted for the 2009 SA PEN Studzinsi Award, and has appeared in Callaloo, The Boston Review, Newsweek, and The Warwick Review, as well as in anthologies in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the UK. NoViolet recently earned her MFA at Cornell University, where her work has been recognized with a Truman Capote Fellowship. She will be attending Stanford in the fall as a Wallace Stegner Fellow for 2012-2014. NoViolet was born and raised in Zimbabwe.

Yewande Omotoso: Yewande Omotoso was born in Barbados and grew up in Nigeria with her Nigerian father, West Indian mother and two older brothers. She and her family moved to South Africa in 1992 and have lived there ever since. She is an architect; space and buildings being a passion of hers second only to words and literature. She currently lives in Cape Town working as a designer, freelance writer and novelist.

Karen Jennings: Karen Jennings was born in Cape Town in 1982. She holds Master’s degrees in both English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. Karen’s stories and poetry have been published in journals across the globe, in countries as diverse as Nigeria, Australia and Greece, and on several websites. Her short story Andries Tatane received an honourable mention in a competition organised by Eyelands in Greece.

Jennifer Makumbi: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi was born in Uganda and moved to England in 2001 to study. She now teaches Creative Writing at Lancaster University where she completed her PhD. Her work has been published by African Writing and Commonword. Her short story Let’s Tell This Story Properly won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014. Kintu is her first novel and the winner of the Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013. She is currently at work on her second novel.

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. He has a Bachelor of Journalism degree and post-graduate diploma in Media Studies from Rhodes University. His short story, Treadmill Love, was highly commended by the 2007 Caine Prize judges. 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. Billy was a Regional judge for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize as well as the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature. His short story, The Gorilla’s Apprentice, was shortlisted for the 2014 Caine Prize for African writing.

Okwiri Oduor: Okwiri Oduor was born in Nairobi. She is a 2014 MacDowell Colony fellow. She is currently at work on her debut novel. Her short story, My Father’s Head, was shortlisted for the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing.