A Keele University lecturer has released a book promoting new Kenyan writers and their work.
Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya is the fourth in CCC Press’s series of World Englishes Literature Fiction, which aims to promote emerging writers unknown in the West.
Edited and introduced by Keele University’s Dr Emma Dawson, Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya will be published on January 31.
The 15 stories in the collection tackle themes including politics, reality television, love, family, identity, and money. Writers include Mukumu Muchina, Shalini Gidoomal and Rasna Warah.
Dr Dawson appeared on breakfast television in Kenya to call for stories for the anthology and was inundated with submissions from new and established writers. She also worked with publishing house and writers’ collective Storymoja in Nairobi, and gave lectures at the University of Nairobi and Moi University in Eldoret.
“It’s an exciting time for Kenyan writing,” says Dr Dawson. “Everyone is talking about a revival in the African literature scene and Kenya is producing more new writing than other East African countries. They’ve come through their election strife and there’s now a burst of people expressing the new Kenya.”
Stories from Dr Dawson’s anthologies of works from Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya have been submitted for the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing.
She is currently editing an anthology of short stories from Malaysia, to be published later this year as part of the same series, and is also working on a book called Reading New India, which will be published by Continuum in summer next year to celebrate 65 years of India’s independence.
* Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya, edited with an introduction by Emma Dawson, is published by CCC Press, priced £12.99.