When I was about seven, my dad walked me into a high school library in a village in Kenya and opened up a whole new wondrous world that has never lost its allure. This was a fascinating library. The very first books I came across which left a lasting impression were the Moses books by Ugandan Barbara Kimenye, the poetry of Christina Rossetti, adventure stories like Treasure Island and Kidnapped! While still in primary school, I worked my way through virtually everything on the then Heinemann African Writers Series. I knew I was going to be a writer, but at the time didn't know I was going to write both academic books/articles and fiction. My first humble efforts started with little bits and pieces that I would share with my family when I was about eight. Later, in high school I wrote a lengthy sci-fi odyssey, plays for the Nairobi School Inter-House drama festival, contributed poetry for the school yearbook, the Impala, and had my own features column in the fortnightly magazine, The Patch Dispatch. I completed a novel straight after high school, then went to university to study business and the literary career sort of dried up. I kept writing, though, and co-founded the Nairobi University student business journal. I kept the literary juices flowing at poetry readings at the French Cultural Centre in Nairobi, and while at Oxford, I was a regular at poetry (and wine and cheese) readings. One of my poems made it into The fate of Vultures, a BBC/Heinemann anthology following a contest.

             My collection of short stories was published in May 2007,   

                                  by Salt Publishing (UK). It is entitled:

           A FRAGILE HOPE

  To learn more about this book, and get your copy, please click here: 

        http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smf/1844713202.htm

 Some of these stories have previously been published in various magazines/journals, such as Ambit, Wasafiri, Kunapipi, New York Stories, AuthorMe and in a couple of anthologies.

 'Random check', one of the stories in A FRAGILE HOPE, also appears in the 2008 Picador Africa anthology,

       DREAMS, MIRACLES AND JAZZ, edited by Helon Habila and Kadija Sesay . Dreams was launched on 31 May 2008, at the Africa Beyond Season (Word From Africa), British Museum, London.

    http://www.africabeyond.org.uk/

  'For a favourite nice' was previously published in HONG KONG ID, edited by Dania Shawwa.

 links:  Hong Kong Writers Circle  http://www.hkwriterscircle.com 

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