The Goethe Institut in Nairobi was packed to the rafters for the second edition of their “Conversations with African writers” series. The first in the series happened a few months ago with Kinyanjui Kombani being moderated by our favourite actor/teacher/playwright John Sibi-Okumu.
Last Thursday early evening the authors on stage were Ciku Kimeria and Ndiritu Wahome both debut authors; Kimeria has the oddly named Of Goats and Poisoned Oranges while Wahome has The Sad Artist and Fairytales. They were moderated by newspaper columnist /radio presenter/PEN Kenya president Khainga O’Okwemba.
It was a full house in the central business district with people in the audience asking questions of the authors that you would expect. What is your inspiration? What training does one need? How are you marketing your books? Are you making money from this writing thing?
The program stretched out a bit more than anticipated as moderator O’Okwemba took time, quite a bit of time, to do a fifteen-minute monologue which included reminding you that he had a column published in The Star today as well as plugging his publisher. I always thought a moderator’s job was to focus on the authors being interviewed.
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