James Murua

Fatma Shafii is a Swahili writer who likes to write about human behaviour and emerging issues affecting the continent based in Mombasa. Her poems, fiction and nonfiction have been published in various platforms including creativewritersleague.co.keand the online literary magazine Lolwe. She is the founder of SHIWAKI (Shirika La Waandishi wa Kiswahili), an association of writers of the Swahili language. She is also one of the authors of Water Birds on the Lakeshore, the anthology of Afro Young Adult fiction, published in French, English and Kiswahili. This podcast has been supported by Goethe-Institute Kenya as part of the "Kenya Writes" series.

This week’s podcast, repurposed from the livestream that happened on November 25, 2020 featuring Mariette Tchamda Mbunpi and Annette Michael. The podcast is a production of James Murua Literary in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office. Enjoy.

This week’s podcast, repurposed from the livestream that happened on Thursday, November 18, 2020 featuring Ondjaki and Philipp Khabo Koepsell. The podcast is a production by James Murua Literary in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office. Enjoy

This week’s podcast, repurposed from the Thursday, November 12 livestream, features Maaza Mengiste and Antje Rávik Strubel. The podcast is a production by James Murua Literary in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office. This is the second part of the podcast. Enjoy

Welcome to episode 20 of the James Murua Literary Podcast. This week’s podcast, repurposed from the Thursday, November 12 Livestream, features Maaza Mengiste and Antje Rávik Strubel. The podcast is a production by James Murua Literary in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office. Enjoy

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim is a Nigerian writer and journalist who has written the short story collection "The Whispering Trees" and the award-winning novel "Season of Crimson Blossoms." In this podcast, we talk about his newest short story collection "Dreams and Assorted Nightmares" forthcoming from Masobe Books and publishing in Nigeria,

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim is a Nigerian writer and journalist who has written the short story collection "The Whispering Trees" and the award-winning novel "Season of Crimson Blossoms." In this podcast, we talk about his newest short story collection "Dreams and Assorted Nightmares" forthcoming from Masobe Books and publishing in Nigeria,

Ayesha Harruna Attah is a Ghanaian-born Senegal-based writer of the books Harmattan Rain (2008), Saturday's Shadow (2015), and The Hundred Wells of Salaga (2015). Ayesha's newest title "The Deep Blue Between," which was published on October 15, 2020, is a Young Adult offering that could be considered a sequel to The Hundred Wells of Salaga. In this interview, we speak about her move to write for Young Adults, talks in-depth about the new book, and speaks about what it takes to write historical fiction.

Peter Kimani is an award-winning Kenyan author and journalist. He works across a broad spectrum of genres, from fiction to non-fiction, poetry, and plays. His latest novel, Dance of the Jakaranda, was published in New York in February 2017, to great critical acclaim. It’s a New York Times Editors’ Choice, among other accolades. On this podcast, we chat with the Kenyan about his newest book and how it came to be, why he needed to go abroad before he finally got a local publisher, and the new anthology "Nairobi Noir" published by Akashic Books earlier in the year.

Chimeka Garricks is a lawyer, editor, and ghost copywriter. His fiction includes the acclaimed novel, Tomorrow Died Yesterday and the collection of short stories, A Broken People’s Playlist. The collection which he wrote with the aid of music while trying to avoid working on another novel is coming in June. The Lagos-based writer shared with us why he turned to the short form to get his writing mojo back, how the Nigerian and African literary scene has changed since his last book came out ten years ago and his expectations of being a guest at the Afrolit Sans Frontieres festival currently running online. This podcast is a part of our role as media partner of the Afrolit Sans Frontières.,

Joe Khamisi has had a long history of public service in Kenya. For many years he worked as a journalist before transitioning into civil service and then parliament. When his legislative career ended, he wrote the nonfiction titles The Politics of Betrayal: Diary of a Kenyan Legislator (2011), Dash Before Dusk: A Slave Descendant’s Journey In Freedom (2014), The Wretched Africans (2016), and Looters And Grabbers: 54 Years of Corruption and Plunder by the Elite, 1963 – 2017 (2018). His latest book The Bribery Syndrome: How Multinational Corporations Collude with Dictators to Raid Africa's Natural Resources was published in 2019. In an in-depth interview, Khamisi shared why he had to write a book about the slavery on the East African coast, how a dysfunctional Kenyan publishing industry forced him to go the self-publishing route, and how a pirated copy of his book Looters And Grabbers started circulating in Kenyan WhatsApp groups. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast.

The African Literary Podcast, sponsored by Nairobi-based Prestige Books, interviews Kenyan novelist Makena Maganjo. A few weeks ago, Makena Maganjo’s debut novel South B’s finest about life in a Nairobi estate over a few decades launched at the Goethe-Institut. The book has since gotten rave reviews from a writer very few had heard about before then. We speak to Makena at a Nairobi restaurant about her new book, how excited she is that the book has resonated with Kenyans and the writers who inspire here like Ayobami Adebayo and Zadie Smith. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast. Prestige Books is your favourite bookstore for African and other literatures with branches on Mama Ngina Street in the Central Business District and at the Lavington Mall.

Lauren Beukes is the author of the books Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa's Past (2004), Moxyland (2008), Zoo City(2010), The Shining Girls (2013), Broken Monsters (2014), and Motherland (2019). Her comics include The Wonder Woman, All The Survivors Club, The Pretty Ponies, and The Hidden Kingdom. She has won many awards for her writing including the Mbokodo Awards, the Strand Critics Award, and the Arthur C Clarke Award, the biggest award for science fiction in the world, for Zoo City in 2011. She is the only African to have won it so far. The Cape Town resident spoke to us during the Sharjah International Book Fair in 2018 about the importance of art (prescient in ythe Covid19 world we now live in), the anger that inspired The Shining Girls and the positive effect of the Arthur C Clarke Award on her writing career. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast. Prestige Books is your favourite bookstore for African and other literatures with branches on Mama

In Episode 12, we interview with Kenyan writer of fiction for all ages Kinyanjui Kombani. Kombani has two novels in The Last Villains of Molo and Den of Inequities has written several books for children and young adults. In this interview conducted at the beginning of the year, Kombani speaks about his career so far, why Kenyan fiction hasn’t been forthcoming over the last few years, and the need to have a more Pan African approach to publishing. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast. Prestige Books is your favourite bookstore for African and other literatures with branches on Mama Ngina Street in the Central Business District and at the Lavington Mall or online at https://prestigebookshop.com/.

This is an exclusive interview with Kenyan novelist Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor conducted in a little café by Lavington Mall, Nairobi. She talks about her relationship with the late great Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, the China that she writes about in her book The Dragonfly Sea. She also shares some of her favourite women writers. We would like to thank Prestige Books for sponsoring this edition of the podcast. Prestige Books is your favourite bookstore for your African and other literatures with branches on Mama Ngina Street in the Central Business District and at the Lavington Mall.

 South African writer Mohale Mashigo talks about her work on her novel The Yearning, how she got to work on South Africa’s first comic superhero Kwezi, writing a book from a movie as well as a few writers she recommends. 

In the African Literary Podcast Season 2 Episode 3 we eulogise Zimbabwe author, poet and actor Charles Mungoshi who passed away on February 16, 2019.

In Episode 2 Season 2, we give you the lecture that was given by author, poet, and scholar Mukoma Wa Ngugi at the St Paul's University in Limuru on Thursday, February 7, 2019. The address was on the relationship between Africans and African Americans.

The African Literary Podcast by James Murua returns for season 2 after a few months. This first episode follows what happened in 2018 saying goodbye to those who passed on, new books and festivals of note.

Sierra Leone novelist, short story writer and academic Pede Hollist speaks about his book So The Path Does Not Die with a focus on how he breathed life into a female character as a man, researching on the American Dream, his membership of the African Literature Association and how the organisation helps African letters. He gives his impression of the Sierra Leone Literary Scene including the Sierra Leone Writers Series and the Sierra Leone writers do we need to be reading? He also talks about his work as a Fulbright scholar in Sierra Leone and his opinion on the Caine Prize that was announced last week.