Category: Kenya
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Nairobi International Book Fair 2025 starts today!
The schedule for the Nairobi International Book Fair 2025, with the theme “Inspiring Readers, Shaping Futures,” to be held from September 24 – 28, 2025, has been announced. The Nairobi International Book Fair, organised annually by the Kenya Publishers Association, has brought together publishers, authors, booksellers, print suppliers, media, and readers from Africa and worldwide…
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Book Digest: Oyunga Pala, Mamady Koulibaly, Manthipe Moila, Brian Gyamfi
Our regular Book Digest segment spotlights new books by Oyunga Pala, Mamady Koulibaly, Manthipe Moila, and Brian Gyamfi. Strength and Sorrow by Oyunga Pala Publisher: IndependentDate: September 9, 2025Genre: NonfictionLanguage: EnglishWhere to find it: Oyunga Pala Oyunga Pala Oyunga Pala is a distinguished Kenyan writer, cultural commentator, and editor. For over two decades, his incisive…
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Kenyan Readathon 2025 for September 13
The Kenyan Readathon will host its official event at the Alliance Française Nairobi on Saturday, September 13, 2025. The Kenyan Readathon is a month-long reading marathon celebrating Kenyan literature, started by book activist Lexa Lubanga in 2020. In that first year, the initiative asked Kenyans to read writers from their country and share their progress…
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Nairobi International Book Fair 2025 starts September 24
The Nairobi International Book Fair 2025, with the theme “Inspiring Readers, Shaping Futures,” will be held in the East African city from September 24 – 28, 2025. The Nairobi International Book Fair, organised annually by the Kenya Publishers Association, has brought together publishers, authors, booksellers, print suppliers, media, and readers from Africa and worldwide since…
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Inaugural Nanyuki Book Festival starts October 10
The first-ever Nanyuki Book Festival will be hosted by the bookshop and library Books & Bloom in the Central Kenya town from October 10 – 11, 2025. Books & Bloom is a bookshop and library dedicated to fostering a love for reading and supporting mental wellness, founded by Rose Akoth in 2025. It provides a…
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Macondo Literary Festival 2025 program announced
The program for the Macondo Literary Festival 2025, which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from September 19 – 21, has been announced. The Macondo Literary Festival, organised by the Macondo Book Society, initiated by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Anja Bengelstorff, has hosted panels, readings, performances of poetry and other art forms in Nairobi since…
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Kenyan writer and academic John Habwe has passed away
Kenyan writer and academic John Habwe passed away, following a long illness in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday, August 17, 2025. John Habwe, who was born on December 12, 1962, had a career spanning close to four decades of teaching, writing, and scholarship at the University of Nairobi. He earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees…
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Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize winners hosted in Mombasa
The Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize winners were hosted to a reading at the Alliance Française in Mombasa, Kenya, on Saturday, August 16, 2025. The Safal Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature has celebrated writing in poetry and prose in the Kiswahili language since the first winners were announced in 2015. Founded by Dr Mukoma Wa Ngugi…
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A snapshot of Soma Nami African Book Fair 2025
The Soma Nami African Book Fair 2025 was hosted at Maktaba Kuu in Nairobi, Kenya, from August 7 – 10, 2025. Here are some highlights from the four-day festival. The African Book Fair was hosted by Soma Nami Books at the Macmillan Library in Nairobi’s central business district in 2023 and 2024. It has given…
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Macondo Literary Festival 2025 launches theme in Nairobi
The Macondo Literary Festival 2025, to be held from September 19 – 21, 2025, in Nairobi, launched its theme, “Chronicles and Currents”, on Friday, August 9, 2025. The Macondo Literary Festival, organised by the Macondo Book Society, has hosted panels, readings, performances of poetry and other art forms in Nairobi since its first edition in…
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Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize winners for Mombasa on August 16
The Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize 2024 winners will be hosted at a forum in Mombasa, Kenya, on Saturday, August 16, 2025. The Safal Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature celebrates writing in poetry and prose in the Kiswahili language since 2015’s first winners. Founded by Dr Mukoma Wa Ngugi and Dr Lizzy Attree, it is supported…
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Join our “Ngugi, Meja, Mangua: A Literary Pilgrimage” Tour
Our August literary tour traces Kenya’s Story Through Street, Stage, and Soil through two towns with the writers Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Meja Mwangi, and Charles Mangua on August 30, 2025. In June, we hosted Nairobi: A City in Words, around Nairobi bookstores and some of the spaces that its writers thrived in the 1970s. In…
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Nuria Bookstore opens new branch in Nyali, Mombasa
Kenyan book store Nuria opened its second branch in Nyali, Mombasa on Monday, July 28, 2025. In 2015, Abdullahi Bulle set up the Nuria bookstore, named after his mother, in Nairobi, Kenya; Nuria also incidentally is a play on the word “nuru,” which is “light” in Kiswahili. He started selling what was in vogue at…
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Book Digest: Alain Mabanckou, Jackson P. Brown, Markus Redmond, Patrick Ochieng
Our regular Book Digest segment spotlights new books by Alain Mabanckou, Jackson P. Brown, Markus Redmond, and Patrick Ochieng. Dealing with the Dead by Alain Mabanckou Publisher: Serpents TailDate: January 16, 2025Genre: FictionLanguage: English (Translated from French by Helen Stevenson) Where to find it: Serpent’s Tail Alain Mabanckou Alain Mabanckou is a novelist, journalist, poet,…
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Soma Nami African Book Fair 2025 program out now
The program for the Soma Nami African Book Fair 2025, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, from August 7 to 10, 2025, is now available. Soma Nami Books was founded by Muthoni Muiruri and Wendy Njoroge with their first branch in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2021, followed by another in 2024. In 2023, they introduced the…