The poets and fiction writers in the running for the Nyanza Literary Festival 2017 prizes have been announced.
The Nyanza Literary Festival, founded last year by New York based Kenyan writer Jakki Kerubo, was set up to elevate engagement in the arts in Nyanza Province, Kenya, through an annual literary contest and workshops. The festival then would mint new writing sensation Troy Onyango as its best writer at its event in Kisumu as well as help unearth the biggest fraud in the East African literary scene.
This year, the festival started with a call out for the entries for prose, poetry as well as screenplay with the theme being freedom. Unlike in the previous years where the prize was open only to Kenyan writers, the prize this year would be open to all residents of East Africa who live near the largest fresh water lake in the world.
The festival organisers have announced those in the running for their prize for the second year. Contest winners in the categories of Fiction, Screenplays/Plays, and Poetry will win $500 each.
Fiction
Those in the running for the fiction prize and their short story are
1) Khalid Salleh – Heaven for a Sinner
2) Moses Abukutsa – Abraham’s Creation
3) Beverly Akoyo Ochieng – When We Knew the Way Home
4) P. Ochieng Ochieng – Your Father’s Birthday
Poetry
Those in the running for the poetry prize and their poems are;
1) Ombui Omoke – I Rule in the Village and Other Poems
2) Oluoch Madiang – These Things She Carry
3) Daniel Many – In Defense of Nyasuba and Other Poems
4) Michael Ochoki – How to Unhinge a Body and Other Poems
Screenplay/Play
1) F Simiyu Barasa for his play, Family Meeting
2) Owino Sangiewa for his play, A Promise Is A Promise
3) Orocho Jakojwaya for his play, God, Too, Must Eat
The winners will be announced in the new week.
Congratulations to the shortlistees and all the best at the announcement ceremony.
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