Of prizes and book lovers
What you need to know:
The last Sunday Salon I attended, now in the spacious gardens of Kwani? offices on Riverside Drive near Chiromo Mortuary, was last year.
That was when the shortlisted authors and the winner of the inaugural sub Saharan Africa’s only seemingly relevant literary prize in Best First Book, the Etisalat, were in town.
And believe it or not, I found out about it, not from writers in Nairobi but from one of the shortlisted authors, Yewande Omotoso.
I remember the first time I attended Kwani?’s Sunday Salon. It was while on holidays in Nairobi in 2008. The organisers put me on the programme of what seemed like an exciting literary initiative to a writer from Jo’burg where one only attended a launch or a literary festival.
Back then, a friend who had worked with Kwani? informed me that it was a monthly event. I thought it was a brilliant idea. Get writers, get book lovers and hope the latter drink enough alcohol that they will have no qualms spending a few shillings on books. A win-win.
After I moved to Nairobi, I was sad to see that Sunday Salon was not happening with the same monthly frequency.
The last Sunday Salon I attended, now in the spacious gardens of Kwani? offices on Riverside Drive near Chiromo Mortuary, was last year.
That was when the shortlisted authors and the winner of the inaugural sub Saharan Africa’s only seemingly relevant literary prize in Best First Book, the Etisalat, were in town. And believe it or not, I found out about it, not from writers in Nairobi but from one of the shortlisted authors, Yewande Omotoso.
A LOT OF FUN
A lot of fun was had by all. The food was good and the literary and non-literary discussions inspiring.
The only downside was that of the three Etisalat guests who attended, only the winner had books. For some reason, there was a problem with getting both Omotoso and Karen Jennings’ (the other shortlisted author’s) books to Nairobi.
Which was very disappointing as both authors are published in South Africa and there are at least four flights daily from Johannesburg to Nairobi.
Tomorrow at 3pm, I shall attend another Sunday Salon as Kwani? hosts the current Etisalat winner, South African author, Songeziwe Mahlangu.
Unlike last year, this time I was invited. Mahlangu’s novel Penumbra edged out Chinelo Okparanta’s short story collection Happiness Like Water and Nadia Davids’ An Imperfect Blessing.
Sadly unlike last year, the other two writers will not be in attendance. I enquired from the Etisalat team why only the winner is coming. It appears that because the Prize is still only in its second year, they are trying different things to get the names of the top three known.
And what was decided with last year’s shortlisted three was that they were all entitled to two book tours before the winner was announced.
The winner then has a bonus tour, which is this visit that Nairobians will get from Mahlangu. The fact that Etisalat organisers believe that the Nairobi scene is vibrant enough to host their winning writer is as good as any reason for people to come. The man who introduced me to Maa culture, Henry Ole Kulet will be one of the readers and I suspect copies of his prize-winning Vanishing Herds will be on sale. So will Caine Prize winner and author of Dust, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. Kahora will also do some reading; Ngala Chome will be there to chat a bit of history with you.
So to the lovers of the written word and to the cynics who say there is no reading culture in Kenya, come through to Kwani? on Sunday. And if it’s not already happening, I wonder whether I should ask the Kwani? team to make this a monthly event again.
