Peter Kimani and Anne Miltenburg are the keynote speakers for the Nanyuki Book Festival, which will be held in the Kenyan town from October 10 – 11, 2025.
The Nanyuki Book Festival is a new literary festival dedicated to bringing together authors, publishers, booksellers, educators, and readers from across Kenya and beyond, creating a vibrant space to celebrate the written word, inspire young readers, and promote a culture of literacy. The initiative of the Rose Akoth-led Books & Bloom is a bookshop and library that will be hosted at the Braeburn Nanyuki International School.
Organisers have announced many of those who will take part in this inaugural edition, starting with the keynote speaker, author and academic Peter Kimani. Kimani is a celebrated Kenyan author, journalist, poet, and academic who has published across genres: fiction, poetry, children’s literature, and non-fiction. His novel Dance of the Jakaranda (2017), a historical novel that explores Kenya’s colonial and postcolonial legacy through intertwined lives tied to the construction of the “Lunatic Express.” The novel was recognized as a New York Times Editors’ Choice / Notable Book and was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Kimani earned a PhD in Creative Writing & Literature from the University of Houston in 2014. He currently teaches at the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media & Communications in Nairobi. Earlier in his career, he worked as a journalist and rose to senior editorial roles at prominent Kenyan media houses. His writings and commentary have also appeared in outlets like The Guardian, New African, Sky News, and Daily Nation. In 2009, he was one of three global poets commissioned by U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) to compose and read a poem marking President Barack Obama’s inauguration. He has also received Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature (2011) for his earlier works.
Other guests who will be panelists, do readings, run workshops, will be Ivy Aseka, Radhika Dave, Fred Wambaa, Janet Chemitei, Njoki Kamau, Eunniah Mbabazi, Munira Hussein, Lucy Waikwa, Vicky Githiri, Jael Otieno, Emma Gould, Keith Pearson, Kelvin Kimuyu, Verah Omwocha, Eva Gichuhi, Cyrus Kiarie, Sam Wamukota, and many others.
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