Paula Kahumbu is the Storymoja Hay Festival Director.

She was born and raised in Nairobi and is the executive director of the Kenya Land Conservation Trust and WildlifeDirect and chairman of the Friends of Nairobi National Park. She is best known for her passionate and forceful speeches at two CITES conferences where she headed the Kenyan delegation.

Kahumbu’s introduction to conservation was to measure Kenya’s entire stockpile of ivory in the 1980s. That work literally went up in smoke in the spectacular ivory bonfire of 1989 — a powerful international statement that the country would not tolerate the effects of the international trade in ivory on Kenya’s elephant herds. A decade later, Kahumbu joined the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and became one of the most vocal advocates against the increasing calls for renewed international trade in ivory.

Kahumbu started the Colobus Trust and introduced colobus bridges or “colobridges” across the busy Diani highway — an innovation that has become a tourist attraction and has been expanded and been exported to other countries where primates and other arboreal animals need to cross roads. She ran the Colobus Trust while conducting her Ph.D. research on elephants in the Shimba Hills at the Kenya coast, all while singlehandedly raising her curious and adventurous son, Joshua. The Trust still saves monkeys, and Josh is all grown up and working for the U.S. Navy.

After attaining her doctorate from Princeton University, Kahumbu returned to KWS briefly before joining Bamburi Cement. There she launched the environmental subsidiary Lafarge Eco Systems and published a world-best-selling children’s book about a baby hippopotamus that was adopted by a giant tortoise after he was orphaned by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The true story was so compelling that over 1 million copies of “Owen and Mzee” (Scholastic Press) have been sold and the book is now in 27 languages including Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Czech, Chinese and Kiswahili (translated and locally published by Jomo Kenyatta Foundation Press). The Kenya Postal Corporation produced a commemorative stamp in a series about unusual animal relationships.

More on Paula Kahumbu

Development Does Not Need to Destroy Wildlife – TEDxMidAtlantic

Hands Off Our Elephants

Interview with Paula Kahumbu at Storymoja Hay Festival 2012

Paula Kahumbu’s Youtube Channel

Guardian Articles

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Clifton Gachagua is a poet, writer and screenwriter. He is the first winner of the Sillerman Prize for African Poetry 2013, awarded by the African Poetry Book Fund. His poetry book, Madman at Kilifi, is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press.

He has completed a novel which was recently longlisted for the Kwani? Manuscript Project.  His works have been published in major literary forums including Storymoja; Kwani? 06; Saraba; AfroSF.

Gachagua is currently writing for two TV broadcast shows, Sumu La Penzi and Block D, for Spielworks Media, the leading production company in Kenya.
 
 

More of Clifton Gachagua

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Madman at Kilifi

Mara Menzies is an oral tradition storyteller. She is passionate about bringing African stories to life and delights in sharing tales with a variety of audiences. Her stories range from traditional folklore such as ‘How the cat came to live indoors’ and ‘The Seven Day Story’, to stories based on actual historical characters such as Kenyan freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi. She is keen to keep up the oral tradition of African storytelling in Scotland and to find audiences with whom she can share the wonders of Africa through the spoken word.

Mara works with a wide range of audiences but her main focus is with children of nursery and primary school age. Mara is keen to provide an alternative view of Africa, a view often ignored by the media. Stories that expose the values, beliefs, environments and attitudes of millions of people who have known Africa, visited, lived or had some connection to it at some point. She firmly believes the way in which people view the world and choose to live in it can often be shaped by a simple story.

She has told stories in schools and libraries across Scotland, at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and put on a storytelling show during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where she received rave reviews. She was also the only storyteller at the annual African Film Festival in Scotland, ‘Africa in Motion 2008’. She took part in the Children Book Festival, Ireland and has also told stories at Hear and Tell and the Guid Crack Club.

Toto Tales

Mara Menzies is the Creative Director at Toto Tales a dynamic British theatre company that seeks to share the rich heritage & stories of African people and culture. (https://www.tototales.co.uk/)

Dilman Dila is a Ugandan writer, film maker and a social activist.His first novella, Birds on a Boat, will be released during the Storymoja Hay Festival 2013.

He started writing fiction at the age of fifteen. His first stories appeared in print in The Sunday Vision in 2001. His works have since featured in several ezines and book anthologies, including the African Roar, Storymoja, and Gowanus Books.

In 2008, he was nominated for the 2008 Million Writers Awards for his short story, Homecoming. He was shortlisted for the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2013.

Film

Dilman is also a self-taught film maker, who has benefitted greatly from the Maisha Film Lab. His first short film was What Happened in Room 13 (2007). The Young Ones Who Won’t Stay Behind (2008) was his first collaboration with the world famous film maker, Mira Nair.

He spent two years in Nepal, where he made several documentaries. Untouchable Love (2011) was selected for IDFA’s Docs for Sale, 2011, where it was picked up by a UK based distributor. With The Sound of One Leg Dancing (2011), he won The Jury Award at the Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival in 2012. His first narrative feature, The Felistas Fable (2013) is currently making the rounds in festivals.

Writing

The Puppets of Maramudhu, published in StoryTime, February 2012
Stones Bounce on Water, published in Storymoja.com, April 2011
The Young Matchmaker, published in The Kathmandu Post, 4th July 2010
In Search of a Smoke, published in Gowanus Books, 2007
Homecoming, published in Gowanus Books, 2007, and nominated for the 2008 Million Writers Award:
Billy is Three Weeks Dead, published in Dead Men (and Women) Walking, 2006
Fragments of Canvas, published in Dark Fire, January 2005
Stu’s Bride, published in The Swamp, 2004
Death in the Moonlight, published in The Sunday Vision, May 2001
The Campaign Agent, published in The Sunday Vision, May 2001
The Soldier’s Wife, published in The Sunday Vision, February 2001
The First War, published in The Sunday Vision, January 2001

Filmography

Producer/Director/Writer

• The Felistas Fable (2013, Uganda), 90 minutes,  (Trailer)
  
• Untouchable Love (2011, Nepal), 90 minutes, (Trailer)
• The Sound of One Leg Dancing (2011, Nepal), 30 minutes, (Trailer)
• The Dancing Poet (2012, Nepal), 60 minutes,
• Listening to Her Voice (2008, Uganda), 12 minutes,
• Street Strings (2008, Uganda), 15 minutes, (film)

Writer/Director

The Young Ones Who Won’t Stay Behind (2008, Uganda), 15 minutes| clip1   | clip2  

What Happened in Room 13 (2007, Uganda), 18 minute. Film

How Will I Get a Drink? (2007, Uganda), 5 minutes. Film

Writer

After the Silence (2006, Uganda), 34 minutes. Film

Nii Ayikwei Parkes: editor, socio-cultural commentator poet and author. Ayikwei is Ghanaian born and spends his time in Ghana and the United Kingdom. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck (University of London) and serves on the boards of the Poetry Book Society, the Arvon Foundation and the Caine Prize. He is the author Tail of the Blue Bird (Random House), which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize and translated into Dutch and German. He also writes for children under the name K.P. Kojo

-       A contributing editor to The Liberal, and has had work and opinions published in many newspapers, magazines and journals, including Wasafiri, Poetry News, The New Writer, The Guardian, Poetry Review, Storyteller Magazine, Mechanics Institute Review and Sable.

-       A 2007 recipient of Ghana’s national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy, he has held visiting positions at the University of Southampton and California State University and delivered lectures and talks on poetry and creative writing at universities internationally.

-       His latest books of poetry are the Michael Marks Award-shortlisted pamphlet, Ballast: a remix (2009), described in the Guardian as, “An astonishing, powerful remix of history and language” and The Makings of You (Peepal Tree Press).

-       Nii Ayikwei has performed on major stages like The Royal Festival Hall in London, Java in Paris and Paradiso in Amsterdam as well as at festivals such as the 2005 London Jazz Festival.

-       Nii Ayikwei was one of a select few writers asked to design a shoe for Converse as part of Project RED (link to small image of his design: https://ymlp.com/ztteNi ). He is currently completing a book of short stories The City Will Love You for Random House as well as two projects for stage.

Awards

Nii Ayikwei’s residencies, grants and awards include a 2003 Arts Council England award, a 2003 Victoria & Albert Museum residency, a 2005 BBC Radio 3 residency, a 2009 Booktrust residency, and a 2011 grant from the James Irvine Foundation for a series of talks in California.

Tail of the Blue Bird 

Sonokrom, a village in the Ghanaian hinterland, has not changed for hundreds of years. Here, the men and women speak the language of the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and walk alongside the spirits of their ancestors. The discovery of sinister remains – possibly human, definitely ‘evil’ – and the disappearance of a local man brings the intrusion of the city in the form of Kayo, a young forensic pathologist convinced that scientific logic can shatter even the most inexplicable of mysteries.

As old and new worlds clash and clasp, and Kayo and his sidekick, Constable Garba, delve deeper into the case, they discover a truth that leaves scientific explanations far behind.

“A delightful book that combines the basic tug of the whodunit with the more elegant pleasures of the literary novel” (Independent )

“A deeply complex novel; each character, every line entices the reader into feeling the beating heart of urban and rural Ghanaian lives… Parkes’ steady, assured writing weaves a cosmological mystery that keeps you guessing to the very last page” (Courttia Newland )

More About Nii Ayikwei Parkes

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Books

The Language of Learning – TEDxSWPS

Tail of the Blue Bird – BBC Africa

Richard Crompton is a novelist with a background in print, radio and television journalism. He was a producer for the BBC and Kenya Bureau Chief for CNBC Africa. He has lived in East Africa since 2005 and reported from across the continent. Richard has a BA in Language and Literature from the University of Manchester and an MA (distinction) in Creative Writing from the University of Lancaster.

He is the winner of the 2010 Daily Telegraph ghost story competition and the author of The Honey Guide (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2013), published in the US as Hour Of The Red God (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).  His work has been called “compulsive” by Ian Rankin, “impressive” by the Wall Street Journal and “outstanding” by The Guardian. He currently lives in Nairobi.

The Honey Guide (Published as Hour of the Red God in the US)

Nairobi, 2007. In Africa’s sprawling mega-city, a small elite holds power over an impoverished, restless, majority. Corruption, exploitation, and ethnic rivalry are part of everyday life.

Amid claims of vote-rigging and fraud, the presidential elections could provide the spark that sets this city ablaze.

With chaos looming, few care about one dead prostitute. But Mollel does. For Mollel is a former Maasai warrior, and the dead girl was a Maasai too.

From the slums to the skyscrapers, from the suburbs to the sewers, Mollel begins to realise that there is more at stake that just this murder. But as he is forced to confront his turbulent past, he even begins to doubt his warrior’s instincts.

From its gripping opening to its devastating conclusion, the reader is plunged into a vividly evoked world where life and death hang in the balance. And in the Maasai hero, Mollel, a new detective icon is born.

More About Richard Crompton

Website

Facebook

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Q&A with BookPage, May 2013

Publisher’s Weekly, March 2013

Radio – BBC World Service, Weekend

Radio – BBC Radio 4, Front Row

How I made it (finally) into print – The Telegraph, February 2013

Johan Harstad  was born in 1979 in Stavanger, Norway.

Publishing

He debuted in 2001 with the prose collection Herfra blir du bare eldre (From Here You Only Get Older).  In 2002 published a collection of short stories titled Ambulanse (Ambulance) . In 2005 he published his first novel, Buzz Aldrin, hvor ble det av deg i alt mylderet? (Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All The Confusion?), which was later made into a tv-series. In 2007 he published the novel Hässelby, which earned him the Norwegian Youth’s Critics Prize. In 2008 he published his first Young Adult novel Darlah – 172 timer på månen (172 Hours on The Moon), for which he received the Brage Award, a prestigious Norwegian literary award. He was nominated for another Brage award for Osv. (Etc.), published in 2010, a play in two parts about the wars and genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda, Vietnam and Checnya.

Awards

Norwegian Youth’s Critics Prize

Brage Award (Twice)

Playwright in Residence at the National Theatre in Oslo

Nominated for the Ibsen Award

Other Interesting Things

The rights to his books have been sold to more than twenty countries, including USA, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brasil, Australia, China and Korea.

As a playwright Harstad has written and published six plays, been the first Playwright in Residence at the National Theatre in Oslo and nominated for the Ibsen Award, the only Norwegian Award given to playwrights.

Johan also works as a graphic designer and occasionally creates music and different kinds of art under the name LACKTR, a semi-fictious art-organization he founded in 2002.

He is the drummer of the band Schtraf, going by the name of Bruno Schmetterling.

More about Johan Harstad

Wikipedia page in English

Three short stories from Ambulance in English

Seven Stories Press’ web page about the novel uzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All The Confusion?

A trailer (of sorts) for the tv-series based on the Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All The Confusion?

Little, Brown’s web page about 172 Hours on The Moon

Little, Brown’s Facebook page about 172 Hours on The Moon, with a lot of pictures, short video clips from the character’s mission to the moon.

Neal Hall, M.D. is a graduate of Cornell and Harvard. His award winning book, Nigger For Life,  reflects his painful discovery, that in “unspoken America,” race is the one thing by which he is first judged; by which he is first measured; first, against which his life and accomplishments are metered diminished value, dignity, equality and justice.

Cornel West, Ph.D., said of Dr. Hall “ he is a warrior of the spirit, a warrior of the mind, an activist, a poet. I sense Dr. Hall’s hypersensitivity to suffering – Martin, Malcolm and Jesus all had this hypersensitivity. Both sides of his soul have prophetic leanings; his poetry has the capacity to change ordinary people’s philosophy on social and racial issues . ”

Awards for Nigger For Life

Nigger For Life’s awards include: The Grand Prize Winner of the Los Angeles Book Festival and the Do – It- Yourself Self- Publishing Book Festival, and first place prize for poetry in the:

- National Beverly Hills Book Awards

- Do-It-Yourself Book Festival

- San Francisco Book Festival

- Paris Book Festival

- Great Northwest Book Festival

- Great Southwest Book Festival

- Los Angeles Book Festival

- New England Book Festival

- New York Book Festival

- Ubud Writers & Readers International Festival, Bali, Indonesia

Nigger For Life book has been Included in:

More about The Surgeon Poet

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Neal Hall’s Blog