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The Nairobi International Book Fair: Creative Economy.

 24th Nairobi International Book Fair. Theme: Nurturing Talent through Publishing! All protocols observed, to some remembrances first. Many years back in the dark ages of the floppy disk (TikTok peeps, that would be the ‘Save’ icon on your gadget), as an aspiring author, I got to know of the Nairobi International Book Fair. Then, I had a handwritten manuscript of a Kiswahili play that would make me a billionaire as I jet-setted around the world, shock on poor me!

Sarit Centre, a revered Nairobi icon and landmark, after Yaya Centre – then. Of course, Kenya’s symbol being the KICC (Kenyatta International Conference Centre, now Convention – rebranding and all that – nowadays, the fountains are working again). The venue. 

All these big publishers whose books I had read as school course and set-books. ‘Go type’, then ‘send’ – which I did. Sent to over twenty publishers – ‘unsolicited manuscript’ – with only one having the decency to revert, with points on improvement, though they couldn’t publish it at the moment. My first encounter with editing. And gatekeepers. Nowadays, they are ‘nicer’ and do ‘Customer Experience’. 

Then, StoryMoja happened. Dashing, romantic, daring, different. Hay Festivals. Creative writing courses – master classes. Ala carte menu. My choice – poetry, more poetry, the short story form (2013 – saddest year of my life, Westgate). Made full use of this opportunity as an aspiring writer. Really took chance with young talent, still do. Thanks StoryMoja for believing in me. (PS: One of my stories which won an award with you got me a job as an editor years later. I owe you one). 

(PS2: StoryMoja ushered me into the flash disk era courtesy of a workshop they sponsored me to and where Dr. Btange Ndemo – then PS - was the lead facilitator. The flash disk was one of the promotional items and I really did a moving presentation {or so, I tell myself}… my self-esteem and belief has been massive since then due to this validation. That my opinion, my words mattered… ‘In the beginning, was the Word…’ If you can own your words to tell enticing stories, you can move worlds. I was also the only participant at the workshop not moving around in a convoy of big machines.)

Fast forward. Again, the Sarit Centre, another book fair. The revered Muthoni Likimani, author of ‘What does a Man want’… She was almost beating up, to paraphrase her, “Young man. Why are you stressing yourself for nothing? Put together a manuscript, get an editor, a designer, go down Kirinyaga Road”… My eyes were opened to self-publishing. Then Ng’ang’a Mbugua happened… The Writers Guild… Africa Ink Publishers… Mystery Publishers… 

The persistent issue, again: The Starving ARTIST. Note the capitalisation.  Enters Nuria. The game changer. Authors Unleashed. Are you an author? Yes? Walk-in to our humble bookstore. And no, you don’t need a godfather either. More importantly, Nuria built a community around Kenyan/East African/African authors… ‘Unity in strength’, a powerful adage, that one. Now, the AUTHOR could truly be an ARTIST. COLLABORATE with other creatives (filmmakers, dancers, influencers, musicians, voice artists… package the book into visual (e-books, printed books, podcasts) and aural formats (audio books)… so immense, the possibilities.

Anyway, kinda hungry now, gotta end the narration. To some shout outs though for all the massive support for the Kenyan literary scene. Crimson Communications, e-Kitabu, cloudKitab Kenya National Library Services the City County of Nairobi (thanks for the two-day sponsorship that was the Tourism and Heritage exhibition at Aga Khan Walk) Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Sports and Arts, KBC Studio Mashinani, The Nation Media Group, The Standard Media Group, The People Daily, Base Radio, iHub/ccHub Alliance Francaise Gothe Insitut British Council Baraza Media Lab Creative Garage Senator Sifuna (will make good use of the recording studio), Wylde International SndBx (you unlocked the (future – msinipige ngeta jioni)billionaire in me and I now live more intentionally) UBA (thanks for wonderful sponsorship to an intense entrepreneurship course) Google Hustle Academy Microsoft Enuka… again, thanks Nuria. 

Most importantly, thank you a million times, dear reader. Without you, all would be vanity. Asante zaidi and keep on supporting us. We promise to get better and better for you in our craft. Today being the last day of the book fair, you have Sunday afte form to check out what we Kenyan/East African/African authors have to offer. Barikiwa zaidi!

(PS3: If not for the hunger, I was going to title the piece “The Nairobi International Book Fair: Reader meets Author, Author meets Publisher, Publisher Meets Technology, Technology Meets Reader”… quite a mouthful {see what I did there? Sometimes I think I am a genius, but my poverty tells otherwise}. Anyways, bye for now… lunch beckons.)

(PS4: ‘AI: The Rise of the Reader’… something about the fall of literature ‘gatekeepers’ with the advent of internet. Will later goggle on BooKTok and see the opportunities there. Sembe imeiva, sasa za ‘kabej’ zimuok. Thank you very important.)

(PS5: This article was written as the book fair unfolded… here it is now, past the event. Apologies for that.)

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